Rio Tinto CEO and senior executives resign from company after Juukan Gorge debacle [View all]

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Rio Tinto CEO and senior executives resign from company after Juukan Gorge debacle

In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange the company confirmed move which followed the blowing up of 46,000-year-old caves in Western Australia

Ben Butler and Lorena Allam
Fri 11 Sep 2020 01.35 BST

Rio Tinto chief executive Jean-Sébastien Jacques and two other senior executives are leaving the global miner after its board bowed to intense investor pressure for strong action over its decision to blow up 46,000-year-old rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara.

Rio Tinto said Jacques was leaving “by mutual agreement” with the board.

Iron ore head Chris Salisbury and corporate affairs boss Simone Niven will also depart, Rio Tinto said on Friday morning.

The move came after a week in which investors queued up to denounce as inadequate the board’s previous decision to cut the executives’ short-term bonuses over the scandal and the head of a parliamentary committee looking into the affair raised concerns that the company had given misleading evidence to the inquiry.

Despite leaving the company all three will continue to be entitled to long-term bonuses, Rio Tinto said.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/sep/11/rio-tinto-ceo-senior-executives-resign-juukan-gorge-debacle-caves