Latest news with #traditionalOwners
ABC News
18-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Post-Juukan Gorge mining talks split Pilbara traditional owners
Rio Tinto is receiving mixed responses from Pilbara traditional owners in its attempts to modernise mining agreements on native title lands. Earlier this month, the mining giant struck a new co-management deal with the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) people — the traditional owners of Juukan Gorge — who praised the agreement for giving them a greater say about how mining is carried out on their country. But the company is yet to do the same with most of the 10 traditional owner groups it has existing agreements with. Land use agreements between mining companies and traditional owners in the Pilbara have been in focus in the past five years, following a Senate inquiry into the Juukan Gorge incident. The inquiry heard some agreements allowed companies to withhold paying royalties to traditional owners until they signed off on new mining projects. Yinhawangka Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Liam Flanagan said early agreements gave its members just a fraction of the wealth being generated by iron ore mining on Yinhawangka country. "They included restrictive clauses and set benefit caps that did not reflect the scale of impact on country and on people's lives," he said. Gag clauses in others prevented traditional owners from seeking heritage protections without the mining company's permission. Rio Tinto and other major mining companies have had varied success in negotiating fairer deals. Some are gridlocked, including with the Robe River Kuruma people. "We're quite dissatisfied with Rio Tinto's position," Robe River Kuruma Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Anthony Galante said. He said the corporation would not sign a new deal until the company agreed to compensation for damage caused by mining before their 2013 land use agreement. "We've had mining on Robe River Kuruma country by Rio Tinto and its predecessors for 53 years," Mr Galante said. "And we consider that we've had 53 years of Juukan caves-like destruction on our country and we haven't received adequate compensation." While conversations with Rio Tinto are ongoing, Mr Galante said their negotiations were falling short, claiming there had been little done to rehabilitate cultural and environmental damage. He said the PKKP co-management agreement represented a "double standard" with the groups Rio was willing to compensate. Rio Tinto would not comment on the progress of talks with traditional owner groups, but said it was actively working to modernise each agreement. "Through our agreement-making processes, we are continuing to embed co-management and ensure Pilbara Traditional Owner voices are meaningfully included in our planning and decision-making," a spokesperson said. Other Indigenous groups negotiating with the company said they were focusing more on the future than the past. Mr Flanagan said the Yinhawangka Aboriginal Corporation's dealings with Rio Tinto had come a long way in the past decade. He pointed to the company's latest mine on Yinghawangka country — the $2 billion Western Range project — as an example. "This time around there was a noticeable shift," he said. "Yinhawangka knowledge holders were brought into the process earlier. That's a big change from past experience where key decisions were already made based on commercial reasons by the time we were at the table." Christina Stone, vice chair of the east Pilbara-based Karlka Nyiyaparli Aboriginal Corporation, said Juukan Gorge was a clear turning point. "I think that Aboriginal people themselves have become more knowledgeable, more educated and stronger in conveying their concerns and trying to get the best agreements possible," Ms Stone said. But when agreements are announced, details like the amount of money groups receive from companies are kept hidden. Mr Galante believed there was too much secrecy. "Mining companies like to cover up really important things which are largely in the public interest," he said. Other major companies operating in the Pilbara are working to update their agreements. The ABC understands BHP has four native title agreements in the region, and is close to modernising three of those. Meanwhile, Fortescue has seven major agreements with native title groups in the Pilbara region, but would not say how many had been modernised since 2020.
ABC News
02-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Juukan Gorge traditional owners sign landmark agreement with Rio Tinto
Just over five years after Rio Tinto destroyed sacred sites at Juukan Gorge in WA's Pilbara region, the area's traditional owners have signed a new deal with the mining giant. The Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) Aboriginal Corporation and Rio Tinto announced the deal, which governs the company's iron ore operations on PKKP lands, on Monday morning. In a statement, the corporation says the deal gives traditional owners a "much greater say" about what happens on their country. It comes after years of tense relations between the PKKP people and Rio Tinto in the wake of the destruction of 47,000-year-old rock shelters. The new agreement appears to be a turning point, including commitments for both parties to work together at all stages of mining, which PKKP Aboriginal Corporation CEO Grant Wilson has described as groundbreaking and innovative. Pinikura traditional owner and corporation chair Terry Drage said it would also give Rio Tinto more certainty about where it could develop much earlier in the mine cycle. "Ultimately, this is good for us as traditional owners, and it is good for business," Mr Drage said. PKKP chief heritage officer Jordan Ralph has been outspoken about the flaws of the WA government's current heritage legislation, but said this new agreement went far beyond protections in the Aboriginal Heritage Act. "In the past, mining companies would only start engaging meaningfully with traditional owners at the end of their study process, after they have spent lots of capital and have put all their eggs in one basket by making key decisions without traditional owner involvement," Dr Ralph said. "What we've done here is remove that situation from the equation. We engage early, we give the mine planners the information they need, we remove important heritage from the mine plan, and we design the mine together." He said part of the agreement included a heritage protocol, which had strategies to protect sites through buffers, blast management and fencing. Rio Tinto said the the agreement reinforced its commitment to rehabilitate the Juukan Gorge area. "The destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters on May 24, 2020 brought immeasurable pain to the PKKP and profoundly changed our company," Rio Tinto iron ore chief executive Simon Trott said. "Through the open and gracious sharing of knowledge and experiences, the PKKP have helped to shape a renewed approach to managing cultural heritage protection and mining activities."
