The CEO of a mining company resigned after the destruction of sacred Aboriginal sites. The CEO of Rio Tinto has until March to empty his desk. He quit because of the anger created by the demolition of 46,000-year-old caves in the Juukan Gorge in Australia. They are sacred to indigenous people. Evidence shows people lived in them in the Stone Age. The company was mining for iron ore. The CEO said he could have made "better decisions".
The blasts caused global anger and damaged Rio Tinto's image. The mining was against the wishes of the traditional owners of the site. They said Tinto disregarded their traditions to get big profits. They said: "We cannot and will not allow this type of devastation to occur ever again." Rio Tinto apologised and said what happened was wrong. It said the destruction of a heritage site of such exceptional archaeological significance would never happen again.