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Opinion

Rio Tinto chief must resign after Aboriginal site demolition

Pension funds should divest after mining giant destroyed culturally significant caves

| Australia
Rio Tinto chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques, pictured in June 2016, admitted that he did not know the cultural significance of the site before his company blew it up.    © Reuters

Lawyer Lizzie O'Shea is author of "Future Histories: What Ada Lovelace, Tom Paine, and the Paris Commune Can Teach Us about Digital Technology." She has worked with several Aboriginal communities in Australia on land rights issues.

When Anglo-Australian mining multinational Rio Tinto blew up two 46,000-year-old Aboriginal rock shelters in May, most people could be forgiven for believing it was not a conspiracy but a horrendous mistake. The truth about what happened at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia is much more troubling.

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