Latest news with #Drage
Herald Sun
02-06-2025
- Business
- Herald Sun
Rio Tinto, Juukan Gorge traditional owners sign deal after 2020 caves destruction
Don't miss out on the headlines from Mining. Followed categories will be added to My News. The traditional owners of land destroyed by Rio Tinto's explosives in 2020 have signed a management agreement with the mining giant. 'This is a groundbreaking and innovative agreement,' PKKP Aboriginal Corporation chairman Terry Drage said. 'I believe it will change the way mining is carried out, certainly in the Pilbara, and hopefully across Australia. 'The PKKP community have made it clear to me that they are not against mining, it just has to be undertaken in a culturally sensitive way, with traditional owners at the forefront.' In May 2020, Rio Tinto destroyed the prized, 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge in WA's Pilbara region. On Monday, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation announced it had signed a management agreement with Rio Tinto. The agreement guarantees traditional owners 'will receive certainty that our important places on country will be protected from mining, while at the same time Rio Tinto will receive certainty around where they can develop much earlier in the mine cycle,' Mr Drage said in a statement. Rio Tinto's legal destruction of the heritage site in 2020 garnered international news coverage and sparked a federal parliamentary inquiry. The inquiry concluded Rio Tinto 'knew the value of what they were destroying but blew it up anyway'. 'Rio Tinto's conduct reflects a corporate culture which prioritised commercial gain over the kind of meaningful engagement with traditional owners that should form a critical part of their social licence to operate,' the final report said. The Western Australian government was already drafting new Indigenous heritage laws when the two caves were destroyed. The state government, under considerable pressure from the farming and resources sectors, then backflipped and revoked the laws just five weeks after they took effect in 2023. Rio Tinto has been paying a PKKP Aboriginal Corporation-linked charity undisclosed amounts since the caves were destroyed. The dollar figure has been kept secret to avoid putting a price on heritage. On Monday, Rio Tinto iron ore chief executive Simon Trott again admitted the blasting of the caves was a mistake. 'Our actions were wrong. We failed to uphold our company values, and our systems and processes were inadequate,' he said. 'Simply put, it should never have happened, and for that we will forever be sorry.' The First Nations corporation had graciously educated Rio Tinto, he 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,' Mr Trott said. The two Juukan caves had been cared for by the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura/Binigura people for more than 40,000 years. The shelters had been archaeologically excavated multiple times and contained a high number of artefacts and stone tools, preserved human hair, and pollen sediments that mapped thousands of years of ecological history. Originally published as Rio Tinto, Juukan Gorge traditional owners sign deal after 2020 caves destruction
West Australian
02-06-2025
- Business
- West Australian
Rio Tinto, Juukan Gorge traditional owners sign deal after 2020 caves destruction
The traditional owners of land destroyed by Rio Tinto's explosives in 2020 have signed a management agreement with the mining giant. 'This is a groundbreaking and innovative agreement,' PKKP Aboriginal Corporation chairman Terry Drage said. 'I believe it will change the way mining is carried out, certainly in the Pilbara, and hopefully across Australia. 'The PKKP community have made it clear to me that they are not against mining, it just has to be undertaken in a culturally sensitive way, with traditional owners at the forefront.' In May 2020, Rio Tinto destroyed the prized, 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge in WA's Pilbara region. On Monday, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation announced it had signed a management agreement with Rio Tinto. The agreement guarantees traditional owners 'will receive certainty that our important places on country will be protected from mining, while at the same time Rio Tinto will receive certainty around where they can develop much earlier in the mine cycle,' Mr Drage said in a statement. Rio Tinto's legal destruction of the heritage site in 2020 garnered international news coverage and sparked a federal parliamentary inquiry. The inquiry concluded Rio Tinto 'knew the value of what they were destroying but blew it up anyway'. 'Rio Tinto's conduct reflects a corporate culture which prioritised commercial gain over the kind of meaningful engagement with traditional owners that should form a critical part of their social licence to operate,' the final report said. The Western Australian government was already drafting new Indigenous heritage laws when the two caves were destroyed. The state government, under considerable pressure from the farming and resources sectors, then backflipped and revoked the laws just five weeks after they took effect in 2023. Rio Tinto has been paying a PKKP Aboriginal Corporation-linked charity undisclosed amounts since the caves were destroyed. The dollar figure has been kept secret to avoid putting a price on heritage. On Monday, Rio Tinto chief executive Simon Trott again admitted the blasting of the caves was a mistake. 'Our actions were wrong. We failed to uphold our company values, and our systems and processes were inadequate,' he said. 'Simply put, it should never have happened, and for that we will forever be sorry.' The First Nations corporation had graciously educated Rio Tinto, he 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,' Mr Trott said. The two Juukan caves had been cared for by the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura/Binigura people for more than 40,000 years. The shelters had been archaeologically excavated multiple times and contained a high number of artefacts and stone tools, preserved human hair, and pollen sediments that mapped thousands of years of ecological history.
West Australian
27-05-2025
- Business
- West Australian
Australia's largest private sandalwood exporter Silvalis reveals nearly tripled exports
Australia's largest private sandalwood grower, harvester, processor, and exporter, has revealed its growing export sales are expected to triple as demand for the scented wood grows in Asia. Silvalis, formerly known as WA Sandalwood plantations, has revealed a growth of sandalwood exports from 450 tonnes in 2023 to 750 tonnes in 2024. The privately-listed business's 2025 export sales are expected to exceed 1400 tonnes of sandalwood, primarily to China, India, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Executive chairman and co-founder Keith Drage said sandalwood, exported from WA since the 1880s, was an 'unsung hero' as an export market when compared to gold and sheep. He said the business had managed to thrive by growing Santalum spicatum, a type of sandalwood, through plantations across WA's wheatbelt area, rather than focusing on harvesting wild sandalwood. 'When we began the company, certainly there was already recognition from government that the level of harvest of wild logging was probably not sustainable for the long-term, and hence the settings to create private investment into the space,' he said. 'We've always known there'd be pressure on the wild wood, which is why developing a plantation resource was so key for the future.' Silvalis operates out of a Canning Vale factory with six million trees across 15,000ha of part-owned land in WA's Wheatbelt, including Pingelly, with 24 employees and $10m in revenue per annum. Despite former business rivals and sandalwood giants Quintis and Santanol collapsing, Silvalis says it has gone from strength-to-strength with their sandalwood exports primarily to China and India. Mr Drage said the business had evolved over its 24 years of operations from managing plantations to harvesting, processing, and selling sandalwood trees. 'Our business has morphed along the way, and along that way, we had a number of different branded companies doing different things, and it was a bit confusing to the market — not as transparent as we'd like it to be,' Mr Drage said. 'That kind of corporate restructuring and bringing everything under a top coat, so to speak, having that silver symbolic architecture at the top, that really was something we felt would be beneficial to us and to the marketplace. 'The settings in sandalwood over the last seven or eight years have been really quite volatile — it's been a lot of disruption. 'We've been very much under the radar and we feel now is a good opportunity to step out of, perhaps the shadow of some others, and really show some leadership and be really clear about who we are and what our vision for the future is.' China, India, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Malaysia are the company's main international buyers, with the raw product eventually produced into joss or incense sticks for prayers. 'Demand for this beautiful, highly sought-after wood continues to increase and Silvalis has a consistent plantation supply,' Mr Drage said. 'Our company has the capacity to harvest up to 3000-4000 tonnes of sandalwood per annum, for at least the next 20 years.'
