Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Rio Tinto Communities and Social Performance Seminar. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one on your telephone. Alternatively, if you are asking a question and watching the webcast, please mute your speakers. I must advise you that this seminar is being recorded today on Tuesday the 23rd of March 2021. I would now like to hand the call over to your host today, Menno Sanderse, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Nicole. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Rio Tinto's Communities and Social Performance Seminar, with a focus on cultural heritage management. The seminar will combine a number of presentations followed by a Q&A session. If you want to ask questions, please dial into the call. The numbers can be found on the invitation, also on our website under riotinto/invest/presentations/2021. Now, our presentations today will be slightly longer than usual, at just under an hour.
Of course, the only alternative to the presentations would have been to spend a couple of days on site, which I must admit we will hopefully be able to do once we get past COVID-19. We will use that time very well and provide you with a broad overview of our communities and social performance function, covering our policies and standards, case studies from Australia and Canada, and changes to our governance. You will hear from members of the Executive Committee, CSP practitioners, and the Chair of the Sustainability Committee of the Board. Before I hand over to Jakob, Rio Tinto CEO, please take a look at the cautionary statement on slide three. Great. Having done that, Jakob, over to you.
Thanks, Menno. Good morning and good evening here from Perth. I would like to acknowledge Traditional Owners of the land where I'm presenting from today, the Whadjuk Noongar people. I would also like to acknowledge and pay my respect to Traditional Owners and Indigenous people that host Rio Tinto's operations around the world. When I joined Rio Tinto two years ago, one of the attributes that attracted me to the company was a long-standing track record and commitment to how it operated, way beyond the financial performance. While the topic of today's seminar is communities and social performance, I'd like to also touch on some of the other ESG performance and focus areas. Safety is a great example. In 2020, we achieved the second fatality-free year in our 148 years history.
Nothing is more important than safety and well-being, and I'm always encouraged to see that safety is very much in the hearts and minds of our people across the business. Similarly, we need to bring other areas of ESG into greater focus. The destruction of Juukan Gorge should never have happened. This tragic event illustrates to me that while we have areas of excellence in ESG, there are areas where we must improve, and I'm committed to make those improvements. Over the last weeks, I have had the privilege to meet many people who deeply care about Rio and who have provided me with feedback on how we can achieve this. This will not be easy, and it is the start of a long journey. Just last week, I visited Gove in the Northern Territory, and I was able to spend some time with the Gumatj and Yirrkala people.
They allowed me to attend their event to launch their vision for the long-term future of the town of Nhulunbuy. I was impressed with their entrepreneurial spirit and their commitment to create future opportunities for their people and the broader region. We are taking decisive actions to increase the focus on how we work with communities, particularly with indigenous people. We also have a critical role to play in transitioning towards a more sustainable economic model. Our approach to climate change is an important component. Last year, we set clear 2030 CO2 emission targets and an ambition of being net zero by 2050. Just last month, we set our first Scope 3 goals, working in close partnership with our customers. Aiming for impeccable ESG credentials also requires optimizing our rich cultural diversity, including increasing the number of women in leadership roles and developing indigenous leaders, as we will describe later.
We recognize that diversity only work where we have an environment that is safe, inclusive and respectful. To that end, we are focusing on empowering people to have the confidence to speak freely. We have recently created an internal task force called Everyday Respect to address sexual harassment, bullying, and racism, ensuring a better work environment. At our 2020 results presentation, I highlighted the need to build on our strengths. We will do this by focusing on four areas. Firstly, to put it simply, Rio Tinto must be the best operator. Our operations performed well last year, especially with the additional challenges of COVID-19, but we can further sharpen the consistency of our performance. Secondly, as I said earlier, I firmly believe that the foundation for our business is achieving impeccable ESG credentials. Thirdly, we must excel in development, both organically and inorganically.
We will only pursue opportunities that create value, and we will maintain an absolute commitment to capital discipline. Finally, we must step up our external engagement and become a more outward-looking company that fully participates in the societies where we operate. This is our social license to operate. It is judged by others and essential to our long-term success. We have reflected a great deal as a company and leadership team, listening, learning, and responding by taking actions to improve the Traditional Owner partnership and cultural heritage aspects of our business. Today, Kellie and Brad will outline how we are doing this in Australia, modernizing and improving agreements, eliminating confidentiality clauses, and when Traditional Owners agree, being fully transparent. They will also describe how we are investing in our own Indigenous leaders through the $50 million development fund.
We are looking at how we strengthen our approach to cultural heritage and engagement with Indigenous people in every single country where we operate. One thing is clear, building meaningful and trusting relationships is vital, and that starts Traditional Owners. we must focus on real engagements with our communities, understanding their felt experience, and never forgetting that ultimately, we're guests on their land. As guests, we must respect our hosts and work with them to understand their priorities and concerns and minimize our impacts. We also must remember that our stay is temporary. We need to ensure we leave a positive legacy. This is essential to our business. We're committed to doing the right things and working with our hosts to rebuild trust.
The progress we make is now supported by stronger governance that improves the way we engage with all of our host communities locally, nationally, and globally. Our new executive committee started at the beginning of this month, a major transition with almost everyone new in job. We now have a future team in place to develop the path forward. This is an experienced, able, and value-driven team. They know Rio Tinto very well and have a shared commitment to unleashing the company's full potential. Two of my ExCo members are here today, and I look forward to introducing more of them to you throughout the year. With that, let me hand over to Kellie, who will talk more about our social license in Australia. Thank you.
Thank you, Jakob. My name is Kellie Parker. I'm the Chief Executive of Australia for Rio Tinto. I officially started in the role at the beginning of March. Prior to this role, I was Managing Director of our aluminium operations in Australia and New Zealand. Before that, was a Managing Director in our iron ore product group. Having grown up in the Pilbara and now worked for Rio Tinto for the last 20 years, I'm very honored to have this opportunity to help lead the company through this very difficult time in our history. I care deeply about our company, our people, and the communities where we operate. Throughout my years in Rio Tinto, I've seen that when we place an emphasis on fostering mutual respect with our partners, we can create lasting and genuine relationships, particularly with indigenous groups and our communities.
My absolute objective is to harness this approach to help rebuild relationships and regain our standing in Australian society. Since starting my new role, I've met with a large number of stakeholders, including Indigenous leaders, to listen to them and understand how we can improve. Some of their feedback has been confronting. It's imperative that we listen, learn, and then take action. We are determined to take this feedback on board to become better, a more caring company, a better partner, and be more in tune with society's expectations. I have been very grateful to meet with a number of former CRA and Rio Tinto leaders who have spent time sharing the mindset and culture that helped Rio Tinto earn an industry-leading reputation for Indigenous relations. As current leadership, we need to learn from this.
In 1995, Rio Tinto broke with tradition and made a commitment to negotiate Traditional Owners rather than litigate. The company had a vision to create mutual value by working in active partnership Traditional Owners. from that time onwards, we entered into more than 40 agreements globally, with the majority of these relating to our Australian operations. In particular, in the Pilbara, to underpin the significant growth of our iron ore business. In May last year, after 25 years of working to create respectful and genuine partnerships Traditional Owners, we failed. We failed not only in the destruction of the rock shelters at Juukan Gorge, but we failed in our commitment to the Burguntty, Ngumbarl and Binigura peoples, in our commitment to all of Indigenous partners and our employees and other stakeholders.
We have learned a really hard lesson from the events of 2020. We are determined to make a real change across our company. We must not forget that the strong reputation we used to have for making a positive contribution to Indigenous communities attracted many people to work for Rio Tinto over the years. That is why so many of our people felt immense hurt, disappointment, and shame for what has happened at Juukan Gorge. There has been a lot said about the damage that has been done to our reputation externally as a result of our actions. What's perhaps not as widely recognized is the impact it had on our people. Our task, however long it will take, will be to earn back trust from both inside and outside the company.
What gives me hope for the future is that there are so many people in our company who are determined to help us do better and rebuild our lost reputation. As an outcome, the team has developed a program of work to improve our processes and rebuild trust. Here is a summary of the actions we're taking. Some of these are being led by myself, others by my colleague Simon Trott, Chief Executive of Iron Ore, and Mark Davies, Group Executive, Safety, Technical and Projects, and their teams.
This is very much a collaborative effort. We're taking actions to address the recommendations of the parliamentary inquiry and feedback we have received directly Traditional Owners and Indigenous leaders. In Iron Ore, the team are focused on rebuilding the relationship with the PKKP peoples. We know this will be a long process of re-earning trust.
We're also modernizing and improving our agreements in the Pilbara over the coming years in partnerships with Traditional Owners. we'll be making sure outdated clauses are removed Traditional Owners are empowered, and we want to ensure we are supporting the right social and economic outcomes for communities. There is also a strong focus on cultural change inside the company, on training and empowering site leaders and our community relations practitioners, and of course, making sure our systems and governance are right so processes are not only done properly, but also issues can be raised. The discussions with traditional owner groups to better understand and reflect their wishes are ongoing and will take time.
In the interim, we have increased engagement regarding current and proposed plans for mining, confirmed that Traditional Owners are not restricted from raising concerns about cultural heritage matters with anyone, or from applying for statutory protection for any cultural heritage sites. We've introduced mechanisms in our approach to respond better to new information that may emerge about cultural heritage sites and committed to realizing more impactful economic and social benefits.
As CEO Australia, I will be focused on nationwide Indigenous issues. We have a dedicated program to increase Indigenous leadership and employment in our business. We are also stepping up the number and frequency of our external engagements to make sure we're truly listening to our stakeholders and getting their ongoing input as we progress these actions. At a group level, we're focused on building cultural capability and competency and strengthening our Communities and Social Performance function.
These actions are mostly focused on Australia this year, as that is where we have the most work to do. Although the lessons we have learned and the improvements that we make here will also be implemented in other parts of our global business. We've heard the many calls for greater transparency in our agreements and commitments with Traditional Owners.
We are committed to reporting at least on an annual basis on an ongoing progress against our internal commitments and external obligations. We will also create an opportunity Traditional Owners to provide their views on how successfully we are meeting the commitments within our agreements. It's important to note that this will be an opt-in basis at the discretion of Traditional Owners. the ultimate format will be iterative, and we will seek their input and endorsement of this.
Finally, one of our key actions is to help to redefine and advocate for improvements in cultural heritage management practices across the industry. Today, there are numerous channels for traditional owner engagement and governance within our Australian businesses, and these ultimately inform the board and Sustainability Committee. we need to ensure that information flows transparently and regularly through the organization from multiple sources and channels.
We start at the grassroots level with local engagement Traditional Owners via CSP and asset teams. Strengthening the direct relationships on site is a key priority. These local teams inform the asset and product group senior leaders, and our leaders will be trained to better identify and address CSP risks. In the Pilbara, we are currently completing the first phase of the new integrated heritage management process that has involved so far, the review of more than 1,000 sites.
These sites have been reviewed with input from Traditional Owners. where there is any doubt about potential impact, we have reclassified the relevant sites from cleared for mining back to protected as a precautionary measure pending further consultation. We have an Australian steering committee comprised of the most senior leaders of our business who are based here. Indigenous and cultural heritage issues are tabled at this forum each month, as well as at our executive committee.
We're also establishing an Indigenous Advisory Group. The Australian Steering Committee and Executive Committee provide bi-monthly updates to the board. The Communities and Social Performance area of expertise and Rio Tinto Iron Ore also provide regular updates to the Sustainability Committee of the board. We've Traditional Owners and Indigenous leaders on the concept of an Indigenous Advisory Group.
Following this engagement, we have now committed to establishing an Indigenous Advisory Group to help us better manage issues that are important to an Indigenous Australia and our business. It's critical that we get this right, and we'll continue to engage Traditional Owners and Indigenous leaders in co-designing the operation of the Indigenous Advisory Group, and we hope to have our first meeting with this group later this year.
It will be comprised of five to eight members and will fulfill a coaching and mentoring role for our senior leaders across four pillars of talent, education, and training, land and cultural heritage stewardship, economic development and wealth creation, and recognition, advocacy, and industry leadership. Through this, we aim to enhance our corporate understanding of Indigenous culture and issues and guide the implementation of our Indigenous strategy. Our board will also have access to this group.
This is a new concept to help bring the outside views into the organization to advise us on priorities and issues Traditional Owners. we are keen to improve the diversity and breadth of views that we're hearing when making decisions and foster an environment of constructive challenge. The ultimate goal, as I've stated at the beginning, is to, over time, regain our standing as an industry leader in Indigenous relations. I'll now hand over to Brad Welsh, Chief Advisor, Indigenous Affairs.
Thank you, Kellie. Good evening and good morning to everybody. By way of introduction, my name is Brad Welsh, and I'm the Chief Advisor in Indigenous Affairs in a recently created role leading a number of packages of work designed to rebuild the company's approach. I was born in Redfern, in Sydney, and I come from the Murawari tribe in northwestern New South Wales. I've spent more than 10 years in Rio Tinto, in environment community operations roles. Most recently, the General Manager of Weipa Operations up in Cape York.
I hold degrees in welfare, with a major component being Aboriginal community studies, law, and also a Masters in Mining Engineering with a focus on mine management. I've previously worked in the government, for the Prime Minister, the New South Wales Premier, Planning Minister, and various senior roles in the Department of Human Services.
There are three key documents that guide our approach to engaging with Indigenous communities. On the left-hand side, you'll see the engagement principles that we've recently developed, that Mark will talk more about in his overview. On the right-hand side, you'll see the way we work, which is our global standard, working across the world.
In the middle, you'll see the Australian Indigenous strategy. It's made up of five pillars, which is really designed to lift our organizational focus to look at the opportunities and risks faced by working with Australian Aboriginal communities. As outlined by Kellie, we'll be working closely with the Indigenous Advisory Group to refresh the Australian Indigenous strategy in 2021, 2022. We've identified six pillars we need to significantly improve on to position our company to work in a genuine partnership with host communities.
Kellie explained a number of areas. I'll focus on a few others, including Indigenous leadership, economic participation through agreement modernization, and cultural competence. This is where our efforts are being directed. While we don't underestimate how long it will take to rebuild excellence across our company, we are encouraged by our internal team's willingness to engage and go on this journey.
Our cultural competence journey is about more than being aware. It's helping our team understand not just the differences in culture, but also how we can bridge gaps between cultures for the benefit of both. We've spoken many times about the need to rebuild the relationship with PKKP. We know that this remains a critical piece of our rebuilding program. Our focus so far has been heavily on initial remediation on what's known as make safe works in the Juukan Gorge area prior to the 2021 wet season.
We're also aware that there are eight other traditional owner groups in the Pilbara, and we're working to rebuild our partnerships, modernize agreements, rebuild trust, and support a shared future. You can see on the right-hand side five big questions Traditional Owners groups are asking about partnership with our business. These areas are covered in the majority of agreements, we also know that genuine partnership is a felt experience, and we have to demonstrate care and our discretionary efforts.
For example, in building a trusting relationship, some of the discretionary efforts required are around our Indigenous leadership and cultural competency commitments. These commitments are not required under our agreements or any regulation, we know that they are important to position the business to work more collaboratively Traditional Owners and host communities.
We have made significant commitments to modernize agreements in the Pilbara, including not enforcing confidentiality or other clauses that may Traditional Owners from speaking about cultural heritage or seeking cultural heritage protections. We also have to respect the Pilbara as being a diverse landscape of different traditional owner groups. For example, some groups have quite a small membership base.
This means that the employment clauses might not become the priority in a modernized agreement. This means we need to work with each group to understand what is important to them in partnership and ensure that any agreement modernization is focused in those areas. We also know that agreements should never be set and forget. We need to build a culture around our agreements that allows future improvements, different priorities at different times, and mechanisms that continue to bring the parties together in a partnership.
We also know that our most successful agreements are structured in a way that continues to bring the parties together. For example, rather than trying to cover every possible scenario in the drafting of an agreement, we can build mechanisms that require consensus between the parties, given that we have a shared future. We understand that this will be difficult to achieve with a deficit of trust. As Kellie outlined, we've committed $50 million to attracting, retaining, and growing Indigenous professionals and leaders in our business. This commitment is designed to grow the next generation of Indigenous leaders in the corporate world. We know that no other company in this country has made a similar quantum of commitment, and we also know that Indigenous communities are heavily challenged at attracting corporate skill sets into their organizations.
We believe in investing in the next generation of Indigenous leaders, including Traditional Owners from host communities, will not only grow a skill set needed for those communities, but also support our company to better navigate host communities going forward. We're very encouraged that we've been able to double the number of Indigenous managers in the business since this announcement was made late last year.
That is only from 7- 15. We recognize that we have a long way to go to grow the next generation of Indigenous leaders in the corporate sector. One thing that I'm really pleased by is we have more than 200 internal Indigenous employees on leadership programs as a result of this commitment. It's an opportunity to fundamentally grow our internal employees who have chosen our mission, vision, and values and want to be a part of the change.
We've established an Indigenous leadership team in the business and are learning more about this opportunity as we engage across the country. One of the key levers for us in this journey is partnering with external service providers. Given this area of investment is so new to the corporate sector, with most employment programs focusing on entry-level roles, we believe this has the genuine capability to capture the imagination of other corporates to make genuine commitments in this area as well. I'll now hand over to Mark. Thank you.
Thank you, Brad. Hello, I'm Mark Davies, Group Executive for Safety, Technical, and Projects. I've worked for Rio Tinto for 25 years in a range of roles around the world. I joined the company as a mechanical engineer and have been fortunate to lead both operational and commercial teams. The destruction of the Juukan Rock Shelters caused great personal distress and concern for many of our employees, for our communities, and for our CSP professionals. One of the actions we are taking to ensure that we never have an incident like this again is to strengthen our communities and social performance capabilities across the company and to embed and align our CSP teams more closely with our operations.
I'm pleased to be able to share an update on the establishment of our CSP area of expertise, which, along with our health, safety, and environment areas of expertise, sit within my portfolio. Being excellent at CSP requires us to have good relationships and to understand each other's perspectives and objectives. We also need to have the right capabilities, processes, and systems to ensure that we follow through on our commitments just like we do in safety. We already have extensive CSP capability within our business. We have more than 250 communities professionals supporting 60 sites in 35 countries. These professionals will be further supported by a team of regional and technical experts with a wide range of skill sets, including scientists, archaeologists, economic development experts, and human rights specialists.
To ensure we have alignment and are delivering mutually beneficial outcomes, we need to have more joined up decision-making within our business. It is critical that CSP considerations are part of our operational decision-making, and that is why we've moved our communities teams from a centralized corporate relation structure to report directly into our product group and asset teams.
We have also established the central CSP area of expertise to support and complement our asset base teams by building capability, providing support, and delivering assurance. The CSP area of expertise is analogous to, and has exactly the same reporting line as safety. This allows for escalation of risks and issues outside of line management. All of our CSP leaders from the product groups and area of expertise sit together on our newly formed CSP leadership team to set our global approach, drive the right priorities, and ensure appropriate reporting.
The work we do in CSP must lead to sustainable and tangible improvements in the social and economic outcomes of the communities that host us. This is the basis for constructive partnership. We have agreed a set of principles to guide all our engagements and improvement activities. Effectively, these principles are our North Star to ensure we are achieving constructive partnerships with our communities. What do the principles of respect, partnership, outcomes, trust, and accountability mean?
Well, firstly, we respect the rights, interests, and history of the communities where we operate. We engage directly with the communities impacted by our activities, and we deliver on our commitments. Respect is absolutely fundamental to our approach. Our partnerships are underpinned by direct engagement, by listening, by decision-making, and achieving outcomes together. Alicia will provide an example of one of our partnerships ongoing shortly.
Our expectation is that the communities will have sustainable improvements in social and economic outcomes arising from our activities, including local employment and local procurement. We will measure and report our social impact. As part of earning back trust, we will disclose, inform, and explain the likely impacts from our projects and assets, and will engage broadly with community leaders and community members and seek their feedback. Social impacts and risks will be evaluated and documented, and we will put active controls in place. We will have accountable leaders. CSP goals will be integrated into our corporate strategy and into our leaders' incentives. We are educating our workforce to make well-informed decisions, taking into account the broader context.
There are five key areas of expertise that the CSP area of expertise will focus on in supporting better CSP performance across Rio, and ultimately the better monitoring and management of CSP risks. The first is supporting capability building, so that leaders can hold community engagement and partnerships as a key priority in running a safe and a sustainable operation, and that they are able to identify and prioritize CSP risks.
The second focus area for the CSP area of expertise is providing specialized regional and technical support and deep subject matter expertise in the area of indigenous people, heritage, agreements, economic development, resettlement, social impact analysis, and social risk. The third is assurance, which effectively audits our performance to ensure that we do what we say. The next area is monitoring, engaging with stakeholders to ensure we respond to emerging trends in practical and appropriate ways.
Finally, refining, updating, and enhancing our management systems, standards, and reporting to ensure that we understand and manage risk consistently and follow through on our commitments. We have a detailed work plan with our asset base since the 2021, and I'd like to share some of those key priorities now. I've already spoken about capability building, which will be a combination of training and recruiting external experts to complement our internal capability. I'm really pleased to advise that Melinda Buckland will join us in early April as head of our CSP area of expertise, where she will be responsible for driving our global CSP strategy and capability build. Melinda has more than 25 years' experience in communities in the global mining industry.
Skills and training is another focus area in 2021, and in the second half of this year, we will roll out a training program being developed now with the University of Queensland Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining. The initial programs will build CSP capability in agreement making and cultural heritage management through structured skills assessments, training, and on-the-ground experiences. In the area of assurance, this year we have 25 business performance audits to be conducted by independent CSP auditors on-site or remotely. These audits will provide an independent perspective on CSP risk management. We will also improve the effectiveness of audits by focusing on maturity rather than just compliance. On the systems front, we will replace multiple systems with a single CSP incident management system to enable more consistent performance and reporting.
We are also undertaking a refresh of our global CSP standard and will review our CSP risks and controls across all our functions and assets. By executing this immediate program of work, rebuilding and enhancing our CSP capability, and engaging in alignment with our guiding principles, we will be better able to support our line leaders to manage the complex CSP risks and issues that they face every day. We really want to make respectful relationships with First Nations people and all of our communities central to our culture in the same way that safety is today. With that, I will hand over to Megan. Thank you.
Thanks very much, Mark. Good morning, good afternoon. I'm Megan Clark. I chair Rio Tinto's Sustainability Committee. Today, I'm coming to you from the lands of the people of the Kulin nation. The Sustainability Committee, on behalf of the board, has been charged with overseeing the implementation of the recommendations made in the parliamentary inquiry and the board review into the destruction of the rock shelters at Juukan Gorge. I wanted to share with you today just key aspects of that governance and oversight. As Mark has discussed how our operating model and governance structure for our communities and social performance has been strengthened. It now mirrors our safety operating model. We've also strengthened the assurance model for communities and social performance. Our assurance model applies three lines of defense.
At the very base of this, and the foundation of our assurance, are our management systems, our standards, and guidance. These will be developed and maintained by the area of expertise. It's not enough to have the right standards. These standards must be applied consistently on the ground at all of our operations around the world. The Sustainability Committee undertakes deep dives to ensure that these standards are being lived in our businesses, and that we are building true partnerships with Traditional Owners, First Nations, and communities. Our first level of assurance is at the operation. As Kellie has described, there are two important changes that have been made. Firstly, the integration of the heritage considerations into our mine planning and development studies. Secondly, placing the responsibility, the prime responsibility, for the relationship with Traditional Owners with the asset general managers.
Traditional Owners have told us that they want a direct dialogue with those who control the mine plan, the drills, and the shovels. The second level of assurance is overseen by the Area of Expertise, as Mark described. This level brings in experts from our group risk functions and across the business, and the Sustainability Committee conducts deep dives into the effectiveness of the Area of Expertise on a regular basis. At this level, internal audit is a very important part of our assurance, and the internal audit team reports its findings directly to the committee. Our third level of assurance is about bringing in independent audits to assure the effectiveness of our controls, and this outside-in view is a very important part of our governance framework.
Let me now cover how the Sustainability Committee will ensure that our changes are effective, that we have the right culture and behaviors on the ground, and that we're helping to build our communication channels as Kellie outlined. To ensure there are appropriate management controls over our CSP risk, the Sustainability Committee will, at each of its meetings in 2021, review the progress on the implementation of the recommendations of the parliamentary inquiry and our own board review.
We'll also receive an update from the iron ore business on heritage management. The committee has requested and will receive updates on an audit of our global community and social performance risks. The integrated heritage management process that you've heard about means that there's an immediate escalation of approvals relating to any site of high significance, high cultural significance, to the CEO level, and if necessary, to the board.
To date, no approvals have needed to be escalated. Our iron ore team has reviewed over 1,000 heritage sites and all sites of high cultural significance, as, really to make sure that we have the protections in place, have been allocated protected buffer zones. As well as receiving these reports, the Sustainability Committee's using other channels to ensure that the measures we're undertaking also meet the needs and expectations of Traditional Owners. that includes regular site visits with Simon Thompson, our chair. I personally visited the Pilbara and Juukan Gorge, and I have plans to visit the Pilbara another three times in 2021. It's very important just to check directly with Traditional Owners that we are meeting their expectations. As chair of the Sustainability Committee, when invited, I will be an observer at meetings of the Indigenous Advisory Group.
This is an important part of listening to the advice at a national level. We have many levels of interaction. We have our local implementation groups, we have our regional implementation committees, and the new Indigenous Advisory Group gives us that national perspective. It's important that we go beyond the parliamentary inquiry and board review recommendations to learn the lessons of Juukan globally.
The integrated heritage management plan is being implemented where appropriate globally, and the Sustainability Committee will oversee that implementation. I mentioned the Sustainability Committee has requested and now receives updates on audit of our global CSP risks and relationships at each meetings. Finally, we will, together with our traditional owner partners, report progress on this reform. We'll do that on a six-monthly basis, consistent with our financial reporting, and continue to engage in forums such as this meeting. Let me hand over now to Alicia.
Thank you. Hi, I'm Alicia Sherwood, General Manager, Communities and Social Performance for the Aluminium Product Group. I've worked for Rio Tinto for 13 years in communities and social performance roles. Today, I'll talk in detail about why agreement-making is so important and discuss a historic case study for the Gove operations located in remote northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, Australia. Rio Tinto owns and operates the Gove operations, which is a bauxite mine and calcined alumina refinery. Prior to our ownership in 2007, the mine had been at the center of a well-known grievance in Australian Aboriginal land rights for decades. The Yolŋu people are the traditional Aboriginal landowners of Arnhem Land and have one of the oldest living cultures on Earth, stretching back for more than 40,000 years.
After years of exploration activity and without reference to Traditional Owners, a mining lease was granted by the government in 1962. The following year, in 1963, the Yolŋu clan leaders representing Traditional Owners responded with a petition on bark, which outlined their concerns about the mining lease granted over their land without consent. The Yirrkala bark petitions were sent to the Australian Parliament in 1963. They were the first traditional documents prepared by Indigenous Australians that were recognized by the Australian Parliament. A select committee investigated the Yolŋu's concerns and made a series of recommendations to the government, including formal recognition of Yolŋu rights to hunting areas, access to and protection of sacred and other sites. Despite the committee's recommendations, Parliament did not recognize their rights, including the fundamental issue of terra nullius, nobody's land.
In 1968, despite the concerns raised by the Yolŋu, the Gove Agreement was established, providing the Nabalco, the previous owner, a 42-year lease with a right to renew to mine on Aboriginal land. When their appeals to Parliament failed, the Yolŋu leaders turned to the Supreme Court in the Northern Territory, and in 1971, the court decided that the ordinance and mining leases were valid, and that the Yolŋu people were not able to establish their native title at common law in the decision known as the Gove land rights case. The Yolŋu eventually received native title to their land in 1978 under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (Northern Territory) 1976. The mining leases, which they had objected to since 1963, were excluded from the provisions of the act.
Because the mining leases were granted in Gove before 1976, the grievances of Traditional Owners were not addressed by the two previous mining companies, and they continued operating, knowing consent was never provided. Rio Tinto acquired the operation in 2007 as a part of its acquisition of Alcan. We immediately commenced engagement Traditional Owners. Rio Tinto set out the wrongs of the past and addressed the longest-running Aboriginal mining dispute in Australian history through an agreement-making process. Despite Rio Tinto having the right to renew its leases for a further 42 years in 2011, we worked directly with the Gumatj, Rirratjingu, and Traditional Owners to embark on a direct agreement because it was the right thing to do. These negotiations took place between 2008 and 2011. Recognizing and respecting what the land meant to the Yolŋu was core to these negotiations.
In 2011, the Traditional Owners agreement was signed in the presence of the then Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. At the ceremony, Yolŋu leaders told the Prime Minister that the matter was now resolved, and the agreement allowed the Yolŋu peoples to finally start healing and move on. I joined Rio Tinto in 2008 as a part of a small project team to negotiate the historic agreement and have spent the last 10 years implementing it. Agreement implementation is not isolated to any single part of the business. Agreements will often include commitments around land use, environment, procurement, and employment. Therefore, the responsibility is not only with the communities team. It sits with the broader company and requires the understanding, prioritization, and efforts of everyone. The Traditional Owners agreement celebrates 10 years this May, and the partnership remains strong with many successes for all parties.
The entrepreneurial spirit of Traditional Owners and their desire to have self-determination by building and maintaining sustainable businesses is the key to the success. For example, the Gulkula mining operation is the first Aboriginal 100% owned and operated bauxite mine by the Gumatj clan, which commenced operation in 2017. Rio Tinto supported Traditional Owners by sharing business practices such as regulatory, health, safety, and environmental advice. It should be noted the Gulkula mine is ASI certified. Another success is a global diesel supply contract with the Rirratjingu clan.
The agreement also addresses the importance of protection of sacred sites and cultural heritage. We work in partnership with the traditional owner groups to manage and protect these sites for future generations. The most recent partnership occurred last Monday, where Jakob, our CEO, was there in person to witness Traditional Owners present their vision on the township, which has been developed for the operations post-mining. The vision will assist with the post-mining transition and ensure a positive legacy post-Rio Tinto. I'd now like you to hear a few words firsthand from one of the owners of the Gulkula Mining Operation, which was a commitment under the agreement.
Hello, my name is Djawa Yunupingu. I'm a Traditional Owner. We've lived here since time began, and we mine bauxite. We've started shifting our bauxite from our mine to Rio Tinto's. The mine is owned by Gumatj Corporation. It sits on our land. To be honest, you might be looking at the proudest man on Earth, I guess.
Before concluding, I would like to move to another Pacific Operations asset, Weipa in Far North Queensland, where we recently commenced a program focusing on improving leaders' capabilities through exposure to experiences in communities with the 12 Traditional Owner groups we partner with. The program was built to gain respect for and knowledge of the local culture and develop cultural advocates in our leaders. Designed to move participants from being culturally aware to cultural advocates and build a core of advocates across our operations. Cultural immersion is exposure to experiences, activities, individuals, or groups whose culture differs from one's own. The program will continue to be rolled out between Weipa and Gove in 2021 and beyond. Many thanks for listening, I'd now like to hand over to Clayton.
Thank you, Alicia, and thank you to everyone on the line today. It's a pleasure to be here to speak about our work with our Indigenous communities. I'm Clayton Walker, and I'm the Chief Executive of the Iron Ore Company of Canada. IOC is a leading producer of premium, high-grade, low-impurity iron ore concentrate and DR pellets, which aid in the decarbonizing of steel production. We have a mine and processing facilities in Labrador City in Newfoundland and Labrador, and a terminal and port facilities in Sept-Îles, Quebec, which are connected by a 418-kilometer railway. We have been in operation for more than 60 years with a projected mine life more than 50 years into the future. In the two provinces we operate, there are five Indigenous groups that have overlapping traditional or historical rights or interest claims.
They are Innu Nation, Innu Nation of Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam, Innu Nation of Matimekush-Lac John, Naskapi Nation, NunatuKavut Community Council. As one might expect, our relationship with these communities are complex. In any relationship, there is a past, present, and future you need to reconcile in order to come together to achieve common goals. While we don't have all the answers, we have found that reconciliation is achievable by following these three principles. First, we have committed to prioritizing these partnerships from the very top to the very bottom of the business. We have made it clear within the business the importance of having strong, positive relationships with our Indigenous communities. As an example, we have made it mandatory for all of our employees to complete cultural awareness training in order to access our sites.
Second, we have started with listening first, seeking to understand concerns, points of views, and aspirations. Over time, this understanding has allowed constructive dialogue to occur. Third, we have delivered substantive action in order to build trust. This is more than just words, it's tangible change on the ground. Impact and Benefit Agreements, or IBAs, which are encouraged by the Canadian government and common practice across Canada, have provided us a process and framework for putting these principles into practice. IBAs are just a framework. You need to continue working beyond that, building truly two-way and mutually beneficial relationships, which makes them sustainable. How does this work in practice? Let me share a few examples. Last December, we were able to sign a historic agreement with the Atikamekw and MLJ communities in Quebec. We had worked on this agreement for about three years.
The relationship had not been historically positive, to put it mildly, and it had escalated over the years to the point where communications had broken down and disputes had ended up in the courts in 2013. In 2018, both sides acknowledged the desire to reset the relationship, and we began the process of committing, listening, and rebuilding trust. We had previously developed agreements with the Innu Nation and with the NunatuKavut Community Council in 2014, so we were starting with a baseline of experience, and we are now in discussions with the Naskapi Nation about a fourth potential agreement with them. In every case, the IBAs reflect the particular circumstances of the communities and our shared goals around education, procurement, business development, cultural heritage, and environmental stewardship, where connection to the land is such a vital part of the health of the communities.
The second example where listening is critically important is finding opportunities to work together with or without an IBA. Through consultation and discussion, the Naskapi Nation highlighted the acute need for the reliable internet access in their village near Schefferville, Quebec. We worked with them to provide broadband to the community by extending the fiber that runs alongside our railway. This has been a game changer for them, for their education and health services in the community, and a critical lifeline as it turns out in the current pandemic.
A final example I would like to highlight is we are working on increasing Indigenous partnership in employment, procurement opportunities, building capacity, and developing a common understanding of what is needed by the business and what the communities are able to deliver. For example, Penkall Supplies Limited is a new partnership, which has a five-year contract with us, providing busing, industrial cleaning, and fuel delivery valued at over $33 million. The economic and social outcome of these agreements are important, but they only happen if you're able to achieve reconciliation and build long-lasting trust. Thank you. Jakob, over to you for some concluding remarks.
Thanks, Clayton, and thanks to all of you who has just spoken at this seminar. Let me just say a few closing words before we take your questions. Today, you have seen firsthand that we have some new people in some new roles, and we are working hard as an organization to earn back the trust of the Traditional Owners in the Pilbara. We are taking decisive actions to modernize agreements and invest in future indigenous leaders. As you have just heard, we have many fine achievements to be proud of in other parts of Australia and Canada.
This is how we have operated for decades in partnership with indigenous people. Our social license is an essential part of doing business. The path towards a lower carbon world provides rich growth prospects for our industry. I'm convinced that the societal expectation on how to mine will only increase. Our aim of having impeccable ESG credentials should therefore be seen not just as a cost or just as a response to GCAM, but rather an opportunity to build long-term competitive advantage. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but you have my commitment that we will drive towards consistently high ESG performance in all areas. Thank you. Now over to your questions.
Thank you, Jakob, and thank you, everybody, for your attention. We're now proceeding to the Q&A session. This will take about 50 to 60 seconds to give people time to join us on the phone. As a reminder for those on the webcast, the phone number is on the invitation to this seminar. While we wait, I'll come back shortly, and the operator will provide instruction on how to ask a question. Great. Nicole, could you start the Q&A session, please?
Sure. Thank you. Just as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, you'll need to press star one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. If you would like to ask a question via the webcast, just a reminder, if you're watching via the webcast, sorry, and you'll need to mute your speakers. Your first question comes from the line of Jason Fairclough at Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good morning, everybody, and good evening. Thanks a lot for doing this for us in London. We really appreciate it. You're progressing a project in the U.S. called Resolution Copper, and it does seem that the Apache, the Traditional Owners of the land, are against the development of the mine. I'm wondering if you could give some thoughts. Could you see a situation where ultimately you don't build a project if the Traditional Owners are dead set against it?
Thank you, Jason. Obviously, the situation in the U.S. is very different from some of the situations we have in Australia. We have been through a long seven-year consultation process with regards to Resolution. We don't have a final development plan for Resolution yet. We are very committed to continue engagement. We have had good engagements, particularly one group, the San Carlos Group, has been opponent. We like to engage deeper with them. I think it's very difficult for any stakeholders actually to have a firm view at this point in time because we don't have a development plan. We are very keen on to continue striving for free prior informed consent for finding a development that can meet all stakeholders' needs, but it's far too early to conclude. There is a lot of work ahead of us. Thank you.
Jakob, could I just follow up, if that's okay?
Yeah. Sure.
I guess you get into an interesting sort of question here where perhaps one group Traditional Owners are in favor and another group aren't. How do you deal with a situation like that, where you don't necessarily have broad-based engagement? How do you sort of get to that goal of broad-based engagement and buy-in?
Yeah. Well, we certainly are trying to have a broad-based buy-in. It's a complicated situation. I think we'll have to look at case-by-case. What we are committing to is deep engagements with all Apache groups and trying to find a solution. The reality is, Jason, it's an important find. Choices will have to be made. We have not made any conclusions. We are just trying to focus it and find a path forward that works for society at large and the communities.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Danielle Chigumira at Bernstein. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Great. Thank you. Thank you for the call. The first question is just on ESG metrics. You mentioned at the outset that ESG was going to be linked to the STIP. Could you give some color on what specific metrics will be linked? Is it only safety statistics, or will there be some other ESG statistics that are linked?
Megan, would you like to talk about the measurements?
Sure. One of the things that we have changed in our remuneration is including ESG metrics. We already have a safety metric, both a fatality metric, which is binary, and we have our safety maturity model, which is very forward-looking in terms of making sure that we've got all of our safety systems and really excellence in that area. It's, if you like, a leading metric. We're also bringing into the ESG our climate metrics as well, so are related to our recent announcements and commitments, and they will go down through various levels from the CEO. We also have diversity targets as well. We're looking at a broad brush of ESG targets, broader than we have in the past.
Great. That's very clear. Thank you. Just the last question from me. On the $50 million investment in terms of increasing your Indigenous managers within the business, what does success look like there? Have you set any numerical targets? Have you set a timeframe, et cetera?
Thank you. I think I could hear about what does success look like for the investment we are doing in developing indigenous leaders. Brad?
Thank you, Jakob. It's a good question. When we think about the proportion of the indigenous population in Australia, you're looking at about 3%. If 3% of our managers, as a straight numerical target, you're looking at about 50 managers of hedge fund or above, with another 100 that need to be ready in the pipeline in order to sort of keep growing the business. I think that would be a very minimal way to describe success in this program. What we want to do is become the employer of choice.
What we want to do is build a culture that indigenous people want to enter Rio Tinto, grow their careers, be really successful, be successful for their communities, and really grow a skill set that these communities need all over the world. I think for us, the $50 million commitment is also about cultural competence. It's about the way we grow leaders. It's about how we embed values into the people that lead those leaders. Success has tangible points around 50 and 100 professionals sitting behind them, but also really about becoming the employer of choice. Thank you.
Great. That's useful. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Andy Jones at Hermes. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Great. Thank you. Thank you for all the work being done. It sounds like you're well on the way to reclaiming a position of excellence in CSP. Thank you for that. I just had two quick questions. Firstly, certainly very interested in the work of the IAG. That's great news announced today. Just quickly, if somebody could just confirm, I guess, what disclosure or insights investors may be able to have in terms of the activity of the IAG and, in particular, their recommendation to the company, what format and frequency that may take.
Second one is the question from Megan. It's great to hear all the activities in terms of oversight of the action on the back of the parliamentary inquiry and the board review and beyond that the Sustainability Committee is going to do. I'm just interested in if there's a broader change to the way the committee will spend its time going forward, in particular with regards to the identification of risks related to sustainability across the group. If you could say a word or two about that'd be much appreciated. Thank you.
Please, Megan.
Kellie, do you want to take the IAG, and I will answer Andrew's second question on timing and risk?
Thank you. Thanks, Megan, a nd thanks for the question, Andy. The Indigenous Advisory Group is a really exciting step change for our business. One of the things that we're doing right now is ensuring that we have a charter for the Indigenous Advisory Group. Because what we want to make sure is that Traditional Owners have the freedom and the authority to continue working locally with us, and the Indigenous Advisory Group can take on much more national issues.
We need to be clear about how the group will work and how the group will make sure that they can coach and mentor the senior leaders that are based in Australia. As we build that charter, we'll be able to approach a chair and members of that group. As Megan had pointed out, that she is able to have access to that group and to the chair, sit on their meetings, and she can also invite them to the Sustainability Committee. Really important component that we're learning the views of senior Indigenous leaders in Australia, and we bring those views into our business so that we understand emerging issues and some of the complexity that we may not understand across the nation versus the local issues.
Thanks, Kellie. Andrew, on your second question in terms of the Sustainability Committee and looking at broader risks, two things that we're doing. One, in particular with the communities and social performance. I mentioned that we are looking to extend the learnings that we have from Juukan globally. We have requested and are now receiving updates of an audit of our global CSP risks, and we will continue to do that at each of our meetings. This follows very much, as well, the process that we used several years ago after Vale's dam incident. We went through that same process, reviewing all of our dams and water storage, and doing that global audit. We're doing something very similar here.
In a broader sense, though, we did some reflection, as you can imagine, deep reflection right across the organization, but also reflected on the time that we spent on the risk assessment, but also who we were talking to at Sustainability Committee. We had quite a lot of time with our functional leads, looking at group performance. We felt that we could really improve the direct conversations with the product group CEOs, where basically the committee could eyeball each one of the product group CEOs to talk about their non-financial risk, their ESG risks, in a much broader discussion.
We have dedicated a meeting to that, where we'll look at future trends, but we will really focus on having these direct conversations with the product group heads. We see that as a way of, one, understanding what they're focusing on, but also as a way of checking and verifying that perhaps there are areas which may need greater focus and we can use the expertise as well from the committee. They're just a couple of examples of changes that we've been making, Andrew.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Enrico Colombo at Vanguard Group. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening. Thanks for the update. I'd like to add some comments, if possible, on how Rio Tinto is engaging on the legislative reforms in Australia around Aboriginal heritage legislation, and particularly with attention to the potential mismatch between public statements of intentions and the reiterations of commitments that you've made today, and then potentially lobbying on public policy that is inconsistent with those commitments and that locks sort of where we have a legislative framework that then allows for a repetition. Perhaps some comments not just on Rio's position, but perhaps on the broader mining industry associations as well that you're part of. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you very much. Important topic. Kellie, would you elaborate on this?
Thanks, Jakob. Thanks for the question. What we are trying to hold ourselves to is getting to best practice with cultural heritage management. Best practice involves discretionary effort, which is above the regulatory control. The legislation and any changes in legislation should be safeguarding. What we want to do is ensure that the best practice that we try and achieve, and we establish best practice, is above that. That should then be able to go across all the different jurisdictions that we work in in Australia and then be applied globally into our global business.
What we will be advocating for and talking to industry groups and the government is how we're going to hold ourselves to best practice on cultural heritage management and teach people what that means, because we know already that people don't always understand what it means to work Traditional Owners on cultural heritage management. Maybe I'll also invite Brad to provide some comments because he's heavily involved in this conversation.
Yeah. Thank you, Kellie, and thank you for the question. In relation to heritage reforms, I guess the focal area at the moment is Western Australia and the proposed heritage legislation in Western Australia. We have made three public commitments in support of cultural heritage management plans, so moving away from what are known as Section 18s, where as an individual sort of approval for an impact area.
A cultural heritage management plan allows you to understand the whole cultural heritage landscape and what, if any, impact there might be on that cultural heritage landscape. It gives you more ability to understand the land the way the TOs see the land. We've also supported a process for allowing new information. Under the current laws, there's not a process of review, or there's not a process of revisiting something when new information is found.
We've expressed support for that. We've also expressed support for a right of appeal in the West Australian legislation. I guess it sits with the government of the day with the right to bring forward the legislation. They are three public positions that we've made in relation to the West Australian legislation in particular. As Kellie described, one of the biggest drivers of cultural heritage performance and trust is discretionary effort. Where we really want to get our partnerships with Traditional Owners too, is a point where they understand that we do this because we want to understand and we want to do it well, rather than we're being forced to do it through any regulatory means. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Richard Hatch at Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Thanks very much for the presentation. Just got two questions. First one is just with regards to board composition. You talk around the increasing Traditional Owners playing a presence in management. Is there a consideration on the board composition perspective to increase that presence on the board?
You said two questions?
The second is just on the Panguna Mine over in PNG. That's been something which you've increased disclosure on your website over the last year or so. Perhaps would you be able to provide an update on the latest on that one? Because I think there appears to be some form of potential sort of rehabilitation requirement there following the exit in the late 1980s.
Excellent. Megan, board composition, I guess you are best placed for answering that question.
Thanks for that, Richard. We are going through a process of looking for additional board members as part of our ongoing sort of, if you like, board succession. In particular, we're looking at the importance of Canadian and North American operational, deep operational experience to replace David Constable's role on the board. David had very deep operational experience across multiple sectors. We have significant operations in Quebec and British Columbia, and as you've heard as well from Clayton, so that's the important one for us. We're also looking at Australian representation on the board as well. Sector experience in connection with community will be important. That process is underway and that's really as much as I can share at this point.
Thank you. Kellie, will you give an update on the discussions, the engagement we have on the Panguna Mine?
We're engaged in trying to understand how we can resolve the issues that are face to face at that mine. We know that there is work to be done, and we know that we want to do that safely. We're engaged with a government process to ensure that we can find a solution. As we have information, we'll be disclosing that.
It is in the very early stages. Thank you, Kellie.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Gibbs at Vintage Assets. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much for taking the call. Your previous question actually was my question. No further question from me.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
Next question.
There are no further questions, but just as a further reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. That's star and one to ask a question. There are currently no further questions at this time.
Thank you. Thank you, Nicole. Thank you everybody for taking the time to listen to us and for your questions. If you have any further discussion topics or questions, please contact IR and we will follow up. See you all later at our next event. Thank you very much and have a good day.