Rio Tinto destroyed the Juukan Gorge rock shelters under a WA ministerial consent; a parliamentary inquiry called the approval process 'seriously flawed'
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What happened
On May 24, 2020, Rio Tinto destroyed the Juukan Gorge rock shelters, sacred to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) peoples and among the oldest known sites of continuous human habitation in Australia, to expand an iron ore mine. It was legally permitted to do so by a 2013 Section 18 consent granted by the Western Australian Minister under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972. The December 2020 interim report of the federal parliamentary inquiry found Rio Tinto chose the only one of four mine expansion options that required destroying the shelters, and that the Section 18 approval process was seriously flawed, with clear evidence of the shelters' significance ignored. In June 2025 Rio Tinto and PKKP signed a co-management agreement for iron ore operations in the area.
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Contacted and made an on-record admission — exact wording not on record.
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No outcome recorded yet.