An inquiry into the destruction of Juukan Gorge in Australia has uncovered that mining conglomerate Rio Tinto is expected to destroy another 124 Aboriginal sites at a new iron ore development, less than 100km away from the freshly-exploded rubble.
Rio Tinto destroyed the 46,000-year-old indigenous site, consisting of two ancient rock shelters, based on ministerial consent granted by the former Aboriginal Affairs minister, Peter Collier, in 2013. The 50-minute meeting with the 2013 Aboriginal Cultural Materials Committee was technically invalidated by the fact that three of the five members of the committee appeared ex-officio. Now, 124 Aboriginal heritage sites are set to be destroyed by Rio Tinto’s Western Range deposit.
The traditional owners of Juukan Gorge are now in talks with Rio Tinto about claiming compensation and heritage protection on the basis that the meeting was invalid, however, they have no right to oppose the approval granted for the destruction of the other sites in the area (several of which are over 25,000 years old).
With Rio Tinto recently announcing the discovery of over 200 million tonnes of iron at the site, it doesn’t look like they will be stopped.
Written by Noah Mitchell
Artwork by Zara Masood
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