Rio Tinto has issued an apology to Traditional Owners in the Pilbara region after a blast caused damage to a sacred site near the iron ore Nammuldi mine in the Hamersley Ranges, the second such incident for the company.
The site – a rock shelter believed to be tens of thousands of years old – was being monitored by a drone, which identified that a large rock and scrub tree had fallen from the overhang above the cave entrance, after blasting activities occurred at the mine approximately 150m away.
Rio Tinto said that it immediately halted operations upon detecting this damage and that it has reached out to the Wintawari Guruma Aboriginal Corporation (WGAC), which represents the Muntulgura Guruma people on whose land the site resides.
Rio Tinto CEO, Simon Trott, said that initial assessments found that culturally sensitive materials had not been damaged, but that Rio Tinto would be working with the WGAC in the coming weeks to fully assess the site and determine what adjustments need to be made to mining operations to prevent further issues.
This incident is the second for Rio Tinto, after blasting at its Brokman 4 site destroyed two rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in 2020.
These blasts occurred after the company received warnings from Traditional Owners regarding the sites’s close proximity and significance.
In a statement to the ABC, Queensland MP and Deputy Chair of the Select Committee on Northern Australia, Warren Entsch, who led the original inquiry into the destruction of Juukan Gorge, said that flicking a couple of million dollars into a political campaign doesn’t fix the problem.
“You are going to continue to be under scrutiny while you are a repeat offender in destroying cultural sites. You’ve got to do better,” Mr Entsch said.
“If they were concerned about it, they wouldn’t have blasted anywhere near it. They can’t just say ‘sorry we didn’t know’.
“I’m very, very disappointed that this has occurred and quite frankly, there is no excuse. Clearly it shows they’re not learning from their mistakes.”
