Rio Tinto PLC (LSE:RIO) said it agreed on a new management plan with Yinhawangka Aboriginal Corp to ensure the protection of significant social and cultural heritage values as part of the miner’s proposed development of the Western Range iron ore project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The management plan is the result of strong collaboration over the past year between the Yinhawangka people and Rio Tinto and outlines protocols for joint decision making on environmental matters, mine planning and closure, it said.
The mining giant suffered a major backlash after it destroyed sacred aboriginal sites at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara in May 2020, damaging its longstanding relationship with the traditional owners of the 46,000-year-old caves and triggering the biggest management change in the company’s history.
Rio Tinto said it continues work to improve its approach to social and cultural heritage management with traditional owners in the Pilbara and is engaging with other traditional owner groups to develop similar plans.
“We know we haven’t always got this right in the past,” said Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Simon Trott. “We have learned and continue to learn a lot from this co-designed process which is the manner in which we want to work with all traditional owners.”
The management plan was submitted to Western Australia’s Environmental Protection Authority on February 1 and forms part of Rio Tinto’s submission to the EPA regarding the Greater Paraburdoo iron ore hub proposal.
Earlier this month, Rio Tinto said it was "deeply disturbed" by the findings of a report that revealed systemic bullying and sexism as well as racism across the company and promised that it would implement all the recommendations from the review to improve its culture.
READ: Rio Tinto 'deeply disturbed' by report that reveals widespread bullying, sexism and racism