Editorial
The miners’ smile

Jakob Stausholm has one smile. It is made at the cost of his entire top lip. The smile is there in every photograph, in the pages of every annual report. It is the slyly thrilled smile of a man thinking about digging up someone else’s resources.

It was Stausholm who, a month after taking over as chief executive of Rio Tinto, met with Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people to express his “deep regret” at the way his company destroyed their heritage at Juukan Gorge. The destruction was entirely deliberate, the combination of dynamite and greed.

“Today let me reiterate, the rock shelters at Juukan should never have been touched,” Stausholm said a week later, announcing a $12.61 billion profit for his company. “We should have dealt with the situation better. It was a dark day for Rio Tinto, for all our employees, and for me personally.

“It rightly caused considerable damage to many of our relationships, but in particular, with the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people, for whom it was a devastating breach of trust.”

This week, Stausholm was in the Oval Office. He was photographed alongside Donald Trump, his arms unbent at the elbow, his smile as thin and pleased as always. Also in the picture was the man replacing him at Rio Tinto, Simon Trott, and the chief executive of BHP, Mike Henry.

The trio was there to lobby for mining rights to the sacred land of the San Carlos Apache tribe. An appeal court has briefly paused the copper mine intended for the site, a decision Trump has mocked as “so sad”, the judgement of “radical left activists”.

After the meeting, Henry thanked Trump and his interior secretary, Doug Burgum, for what he called their “strong leadership to reinvigorate mining and processing supply chains in and for America”. Henry has a clear view of the situation: “The world needs more mining to build the future.”

It seems fitting that the United States president has met with Australian mining executives before he has met with the prime minister. He only wants to speak to the people in charge. He has turned the Resolute desk into a negotiating table.

The land where the mine is to be built has been used for religious ceremonies and to gather medicinal plants. Apache leaders say without it they have no nation. Experts say the proposal will create a crater three kilometres wide and 300 metres deep. More than a billion tonnes of toxic material will be excavated in the course of its life.

None of this troubles the executives of Rio Tinto or BHP. They have the tight, knowing smiles of people who have already won.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on August 23, 2025 as "The miners’ smile".

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