A director and two top officials of mining company Rio Tinto are resigning over fuss over the destruction of some caves in Australia. The British-Australian company destroyed those sacred caves for Aboriginal people in search of minerals.
The caves of the Juukan Gorge have been used by the indigenous people of Australia for 46,000 years and symbolized their connection to the land and their ancestors. In addition, they were an archaeological site of prehistoric tools.
To mine iron ore in the area, Rio Tinto blew up the caves in May. To baffled responses from Aboriginal groups, the company said it had been licensed.
Bonus withdrawn
After persistent protests from injured Aboriginal people, Rio Tinto apologized and it was decided to withdraw the million-dollar bonus from director Jean-Sébastien Jacques and the two other people in charge. Because important shareholders did not think that was enough, the three have now announced their departure.
In addition, Australia has started a study on how to issue permits and how to better protect these types of heritage sites.
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