RIO TINTO BLASTS 46,000-YEAR-OLD SACRED SITE IN AUSTRALIA

Mining giant Rio Tinto has apologized after blowing up a 46,000-year-old sacred indigenous site with dynamite to expand an Australian iron ore mine in Juukan Gorge, in Western Australia state's resource-rich Pilbara region, Angus Watson and Ben Westcott reported in CNN Business on June 1, 2020.

The site featured two cave systems that contained artifacts indicating tens of thousands of years of continuous human occupation where grinding stones, a a bone sharpened into a tool and 4,000-year-old braided hair were among almost 7,000 relics that had been discovered at the site, according to CNN affiliate 7News.

Rio Tinto is one of the world's largest mining companies and has vast operations in Australia, where its iron mines make up more than half of its revenue. The May 24 demolition went ahead despite a seven-year battle by the local custodians of the land, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura People, to protect the site. "We pay our respects to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura People (PKKP)," Rio Tinto Iron Ore CEO Chris Salisbury said in a statement released Sunday. "We are sorry for the distress we have caused. Our relationship with the PKKP matters a lot to Rio Tinto, having worked together for many years," the statement said.

Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the country's first leader to apologize to generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children forcefully taken from their parents by white Australians last century, said Rio Tinto's "corporate arrogance had robbed all Australians." He added: "Juukan Gorge's shelters [are] nine-times older than Stonehenge, 23-times older than the Colosseum and 75-times older than Machu Picchu." Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt said the "destruction should not have occurred," adding that he had personally spoken to the traditional owners of the land. "It's incredibly important this doesn't happen again," said Wyatt, an indigenous Australian.