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"There were certainly some shareholders who felt strongly that the accountability was inappropriate and that this was an issue that needed to be addressed to rebuild trust,"Mr Thompson toldThe Age andThe Sydney Morning Herald.
In order to enhance the board's focus and engagement in Australia,Simon McKeon,a non-executive director and former Australian of the Year for his philanthropic endeavours,would be appointed as Rio's senior independent director immediately.
Among theprominent investors to denounce the board's proposed financial penalties were AustralianSuper,HESTA,Unisuper and a group of 81 British pension funds,which made their demands for greater sanctions clear.
The National Native Title Council wrote to Mr Thompson describing the pay cuts as wholly inadequate and accusing the board of being"divorced from reality".
The blasting of the Juukan Gorge was legally sanctioned as part of a long-planned expansion of Rio's Brockman 4 iron ore mine,but it went against the wishes of the land's traditional owners,the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) people,who said they were shocked and left devastated.
Although Rio Tinto claimed it believed it had the PKKP's consent until it was too late to stop the blast safely,the miner has issued public apologies and has acknowledged multiple failures in its communication with the traditional owners that could have prevented the debacle.
"What happened at Juukan was wrong,"Mr Thompson said on Friday."We are determined to ensure the destruction of a heritage site of such exceptional archaeological and cultural significance never occurs again at a Rio Tinto operation."
In the fallout from the disaster,multiple former Rio Tinto insiders have laid blame squarely on the leadership of Mr Jacques,who made sweeping changes to the structure of the miner's Aboriginal relations functions when he became chief executive in 2016. Bruce Harvey,who led Rio Tinto's global community and Indigenous relations,and Glynn Cochrane,a senior adviser,said Mr Jacques'organisational overhauldiluted the roles of mine site leaders,anthropologists and archaeologists in community relations.
Politicians and Indigenous groups welcomed the news of the board shakeup,but pressure still remains on the company and the mining industry to do better.
Warren Entsch,the chair of the parliamentary committee looking into the Juukan Gorge debacle,said he would be seeking assurances from Rio Tinto that the three senior executives would continue to provide evidence to his inquiry.
It is not about just getting a couple of scalps and saying that's the end of it,there is a lot more that needs to come out of this.
Federal MP Warren Entsch
"I think there is a lot more to be teased out of this. It is not about just getting a couple of scalps and saying that's the end of it,there is a lot more that needs to come out of this,"he said.
"It beggars belief that somebody up the chain,somebody that actually pulls the bloody chain didn't have some knowledge of this. I hope they don't leave the country before they do present to us."
The First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance said the resignation of the Rio bosses was not enough.
"Until there is industry-wide reform and robust legislative change,there will be other appalling situations like Juukan Gorge,"the alliance warned in a statement.
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Ancient artefacts unearthed at the Juukan Gorge shelters – including grinding and pounding stones,a 28,000-year-old marsupial bone sharpened into a tool and a 4000-year-old belt made of plaited human hair with DNA linking it directly to today's PKKP people – had placed the caves among the most significant archaeological research sites in Australia.
The loss of the site has highlighted the power imbalance between Australia's mining industry and traditional owners and raises questions now being considered by a federal parliamentary inquiry about the need for stronger legal protections for traditional owners to safeguard heritage sites on their ancestral land.
A spokeswoman for the PKKP Aboriginal Corporation said on Friday it had no comment to make on the executive resignations,but it would continue to work with Rio Tinto.
“Our focus continues to rest heavily on preserving Aboriginal heritage and advocating for wide-ranging changes to ensure a tragedy like this never happens again,"she said. “We cannot and will not allow this type of devastation to occur ever again.”