Rio Tinto taps Canadian ambassador to China to be next chairman

Mining giant Rio Tinto has selected Canadian businessman Dominic Barton to be its new chairman, replacing Simon Thompson who will stand down in 2022 to take responsibility for the company’s destruction of the 46,000-year-old Aboriginal rock shelters at Western Australia’s Juukan Gorge.

Mr Barton, Canada’s outgoing ambassador to China and a former head of global consultancy group McKinsey & Co, would join Rio’s board in April and be appointed to the role of chairman at its annual investor meeting on May 5, the Anglo-Australian miner announced on Monday.

Mr Thompson’s departure from the role follows Rio Tinto’s decision to blast through a culturally significant Aboriginal heritage site to make way for an expansion of an iron ore mine last year, which sparked global condemnation, triggered a federal parliamentary inquiry and plunged the company into crisis.

The Juukan Gorge disaster has already forced the departures of Rio’s former chief executive, Jean-Sebastien Jacques, two of his top deputies and high-profile director Michael L’Estrange.

Mr Barton said he looked forward to working with Rio’s new chief executive, Jakob Stausholm

“I look forward to working with Jakob and the board to implement a strategy that puts decarbonisation at the heart of the business and positions Rio Tinto to be a leader in addressing complex global problems, while building and sustaining trust with host communities,” he said.

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.

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.