A federal parliamentary inquiry has heard Rio Tinto did not tell traditional owners there were three other options which would have spared the Juukan Gorge rock shelters from destruction in May.

Rio Tinto has admitted it did not tell traditional owners there were four options for blasting at Juukan Gorge, three of which did not involve the destruction of highly significant ancient rock shelters.

• Rio Tinto says it didn’t tell traditional owners there were four options for the Brockman 4 mine
• The option presented, which involved destroying the rock shelters, netted an extra eight million tonnes of high grade ore
• Executives did not know the high significance of the area until May, despite numerous archaeological reports

Traditional owners were “deeply troubled” after Rio Tinto detonated explosives near culturally significant rock shelters dating back more than 46,000 years, destroying them, on the weekend of 23-24 May this year.
Executives from the company have testified at the first day of hearings in a federal parliamentary inquiry investigating Rio Tinto’s destruction of the rock shelters in WA’s Pilbara.
The destruction has damaged Rio Tinto’s relationship with the Puutu Kunti Kurrama people and the Pinikura (PKKP) traditional owners, and its international reputation.
“The PKKP was not made aware that four options were available in 2012 and 2013,” Rio Tinto CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques told the hearing.
The option adopted and carried out in May gave Rio Tinto access to an extra eight million tonnes of high grade iron ore, worth $135 million at the time.
The inquiry also heard senior executives only became aware of an issue on May 21, and were not aware of the area’s high cultural significance until then.
This was despite a number of archaeological reports funded by the company from 2013.
The cave sites were among the oldest in Australia, with evidence of continuous human habitation going back 46,000 years.
Mr Jacques again apologised for the destruction and said it should not have happened.
“I can put my hand on my heart and say there is no one in Rio who wakes up in the morning and wants to cause such harm,” Mr Jacques said.
More to come.