Cultural heritage

The Indigenous people of North East Arnhem land, the Yolngu, have lived in the region for more than 65,000 years and practise one of the longest living traditional cultures in the world.

Our Gove site – including the township of Nhulunbuy – is located on Aboriginal land. We acknowledge the significant value Yolngu place on their heritage and Country, and work in partnership with them throughout the mining process to manage this. We manage cultural heritage and sacred sites as legislated by the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA).

Our lease areas contain a wide range of cultural heritage features and values. They can be tangible, such as landscapes and artefacts, and intangible, such as language, music and customary practice. All heritage features and values are considered as being of equal value. If a site or an object is identified as significant, it is protected from mining.

For example, in 2022, 111 hectares of land were surveyed across the Gove mining lease with the Gumatj and Rirratjingu Traditional Owners to protect and preserve sites and story places.

Land agreements

In 2011 we signed the Gove Traditional Owners Agreement with the Gumatj, Rirratjingu and Galpu Traditional Owners. We are the first operator in the region to sign an agreement with Traditional Owners.

The historic agreement provides mutual benefits including economic development, employment and training, land and environmental management, financial benefits, protection of cultural and significant sites and contracting business opportunities.

Supporting local Indigenous businesses

Supporting Yolngu business development forms an integral part of the Gove Traditional Owners Agreement. As the planned closure of the Gove Alumina Refinery and Residue Disposal Area progresses, our focus is to provide opportunities directly and indirectly to local and Indigenous businesses in the East Arnhem region. We do this through local procurement, partnerships and training.

Our operations are located on Indigenous-owned land and, in 2018, we became a customer of the Gulkula mine – Australia’s first 100% Indigenous run and owned bauxite mine, wholly owned by the Gumatj clan. We buy bauxite from Gulkula and export it nationally and internationally through our port. In May 2018, senior Traditional Owners of the Gumatj clan witnessed the first shipment of their bauxite to China from Rio Tinto’s export wharf at Gove.

In addition, adjacent to the mine, the Gumatj Corporation has established the Gulkula Regional Training Centre with funding support from Rio Tinto, and the Australian and Northern Territory governments, which allows local Indigenous people to receive on-the-job training to build careers in mining and other related industries.

We spend approximately A$94 million each year on a wide a range of goods and services provided by local Indigenous businesses including earthworks and construction, fencing, maintenance, waste management, heritage services and environmental and land rehabilitation services.

We also collaborate with the local communities and an example of this is our work with a Yolngu business to undertake mine rehabilitation. Local Yolngu collect native seed on the mining lease prior to mining, which is then used for the seeding of rehabilitated areas after mining. Each year, the Yolngu collect more than 400 kilograms of native seeds and more than 15,000 native plants are grown in our regeneration nursery. They are then used to rehabilitate around 120 hectares of land.

We also strive to increase local Indigenous employment for local Yolngu people and provide training opportunities to create employment opportunities beyond mining.

Economic development

We were acutely aware of the challenges that lay ahead for the region following the curtailment of the Gove Alumina Refinery in 2013. In 2014, we partnered with the Northern Territory Government to fund the establishment of the independent not-for-profit company Developing East Arnhem Limited (DEAL), created to drive economic diversification and stimulate new opportunities in the region. Rio Tinto and the Government provided A$2 million each in seed funding.

Access to housing was identified as a key constraint to growth in the town; businesses could not expand because there was not enough affordable rental housing to accommodate new employees. To address this, Rio Tinto provided DEAL with 250 residential properties previously used for refinery workers.

To help create broader employment opportunities, DEAL established an Economic Development Fund to finance business growth projects to deliver sustainable job outcomes for the region. 

DEAL’s focus is to link private enterprise, industry, community and government agencies to support economic diversification and growth in the East Arnhem region for the benefit of the regional population. This is achieved through projects across the tourism, health, retail, marine services, education and training, construction and hospitality industries.