Authentic or performative? Social licence to operate in settler colonial contexts - Rio Tinto, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples and the destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters

Abstract

In May 2020, global mining corporation Rio Tinto destroyed the historic Juukan Gorge rock shelters, prompting a public outcry, a government inquiry, and financial and personal sanctions for the company’s senior management, suggesting that the company’s actions were both surprising and shocking. We challenge Rio Tinto’s interpretation and reasoning of the rock destruction by drawing on theories of social licence to operate and settler colonialism to illustrate how their actions were a logical outcome of its operating context. We treat the destruction of Juukan Gorge rock shelters as an explanatory case study, which reveals how Indigenous Australian voices were curtailed in the pursuit of mining wealth, despite Rio Tinto’s public commitment to a highly regarded Reconciliation Action Plan. We conclude that the effectiveness of a social licence to operate is determined by its relationship to both political and legal licences to operate in the same space; that Reconciliation Action Plans, as a mechanism for claiming a social licence to operate, have limited impact on corporate practice; and that Indigenous stakeholder engagement with the Australian extractive industries remains a fragile exercise.