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Like many mining executives, Jean-Sebastien Jacques has been trying to "change the barbecue conversation". Eager to promote minings contribution to human progress and prosperity, yet knowing full well that perceptions of greed and environmental damage loom large in the publics mind, sometimes this can seem like a losing fight.

"I hate to tell you," the Rio Tinto chief once said. "Our industry is one of the least-trusted on the planet."

In 2018, Jacques invoked Oscar-winning movie Avatars portrayal of miners - inflicting destruction on a fictional moon and displacing its Indigenous inhabitants in pursuit of the mineral "unobtainium" - to drive home the point hes been pressing for years: "We need to be better at telling our story."

Which is why for many in the industry and investment community, Rio Tintos destruction of two ancient Aboriginal rock shelters at Western Australias Juukan Gorge last month came as something of a shock. The saga has devastated the areas traditional owners, incensed the Australian public and, in an instant, made the task of repairing minings image problem seem a whole lot harder.

Rio Tinto's CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques in Melbourne.Credit:Josh Robenstone

Expectations around the role of business in society continue to ratchet upwards and the world is growing increasingly sensitive to social and environmental issues. At the same time, money managers are placing exponentially more importance on how companies minimise these risks, commonly referred to as ESG (environmental, social, governance). Nowhere is this more apparent than in "high-impact" industries such as mining.

The inclusion of ESG into financial decision-making is based on an understanding that such issues will increasingly present a financial risk to investments and ought to be considered alongside other performance metrics. ESG pressure in recent years has been most evident in lobbying the mining sector on climate change action. At risk of being screened out by ESG-conscious investors and seeing their shares dumped, many of the worlds top miners have ploughed billions of dollars into carbon-reduction initiatives, investing in renewable energy generation, signing up to goals to become "net-zero" emitters and where possible reducing their exposure to the heaviest-polluting fossil fuels.

But there is now a gathering verdict in the investment community that the Juukan Gorge disaster is setting the scene for heightened focus on the S or "social" side of ESG. This will lift scrutiny of a long-running but often unspoken problem that has been lying beneath the mining sector for decades: an extreme power imbalance between miners and the Indigenous custodians of land on which they often operate.

Some difficult questions are now being asked. Do the lands traditional owners have enough protections? And should there be instances in which significant sites must be permanently protected, no matter the amount of compensation offered?

We wouldnt ever think of blowing up the pyramids because theres a coal seam underneath.

Some investors and governance experts are likening the significance of Rio's Juukan Gorge saga to Australias banking royal commission, which focused the public on systemic issues that breached community standards.

"The banking royal commission has a lot of parallels with this in as much as it really raised an underlying issue that was a point of contention with the community before and turned it into a catalyst for regulatory action," says Zoe Whitton, head of ESG at Citigroup.

"Both industries - mining and banking - have to perennially renegotiate their bargain with society, their licences to operate. These feel like catalyst moments in those renegotiations."

For nearly 30 years since traditional ownership rights were recognised in Australia, Indigenous owners in WAs iron ore-rich Pilbara have been entering into legally binding native title agreements with mining companies, under which miners provide valuable royalty streams - a share in economic prosperity which they have long been denied - in exchange for the impact to their land and cultural heritage.

As far as the law is concerned, however, WA legislation gives no right of review to landowners after a decision has been reached, and no state or Commonwealth acts offer traditional owners the ability to veto projects that would harm significant artefacts or sites.

"Its a right to sit at the table, its not a right to say no," Griffith University law professor Kate Galloway says.

Wiradjuri man and chief executive of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council James Christian says the Juukan gorge blast shows the laws designed to protect ancient Indigenous history are broken. "It is an indictment on the archaic policies across the country which continually fail to protect the cultural legacy and heritage of First Nations people," he says.

The imbalance of power sits at the heart of Rio Tintos controversy at Juukan Gorge. There is no dispute about the legality of Rio's actions, obtaining all necessary legal approvals and consent back in 2013, nor is there dispute about the significance of the Juukan Gorge site, which has evidence of continual human occupation stretching back a staggering 46,000 years.

The mining giant led investigations in 2014 which revealed the site to be more significant than first thought, and then collaborated with the traditional owners - the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation - to retrieve key artefacts so that they could be preserved.

What is being disputed is whether Rio Tinto was aware of any formal requests by the traditional owners that the site itself be preserved following the finding of the artefacts and went ahead with it anyway, a claim that Rio denies. Regardless, Rio has apologised unreservedly and committed to a board-led review of its bungled decision and heritage management policies.

Should there be a line drawn in the trade-off between Aboriginal heritage and the economic benefits of developing a resource, and where should that line be? In the wash-up of the Juukan Gorge disaster, its a question on the minds of many in the mining and investment communities.

"We wouldnt ever think of blowing up the pyramids because theres a coal seam underneath," one Rio Tinto investor said. "We do need to have a serious conversation."

"Wherever the line is," one mining insider said, "the public clearly thinks Juukan Gorge was on the wrong side of it."

What happened at Juukan Gorge and the adequacy of the frameworks that failed to protect the site are set to be reviewed under a parliamentary inquiry to be headed by Liberal MP Warren Entsch, which will recommend legislative changes required to prevent this happening again.

"The existing process is very much focused on agreeing on compensation, its never been about undertaking not to mine," Citi's Whitton explains. "I suspect the process we are about to go through will result in being able to protect some sites permanently, which would be a huge change. The community response has very much been that some sites, some artefacts, should not be destroyed."

WA Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt has been under fire for granting approvals to BHP and Rio Tinto.Credit:Lauren Pilat

However, there are some concerns of reforms in this area going too far. Western Australia Treasurer Ben Wyatt, an Indigenous man, is an advocate of traditional owners' self-determination. Although deeply critical of the failing's of WA's heritage legislation which failed to prevent Juukan Gorge's destruction, he is cautious about growing calls for government intervention in traditional owners' negotiations.

"Well-meaning third parties can't say self-determination that we support is fine but can only take place on the terms that we insist upon," he told Perth radio 6PR. "Aboriginal people are going to make decisions that they make in their own interests and I support that self-determination."

In the weeks that followed the Juukan Gorge disaster, a groundswell of concern about threats to Indigenous sites has been spreading across the Pilbara, and then across the country. Australias top miner, BHP, put on hold plans to destroy dozens of Aboriginal sites as part of its South Flank iron ore mine. And in NSW, a fresh legal push by the Gomeroi people to halt the destruction of ancient spear marks, burial sites and ceremonial grounds at a proposed open-cut coal mine being developed by China Shenhua Energy near Gunnedah, has put the topic of reform back on the agenda in the state parliament.

Aberdeen Standard Investments, one of the top shareholders of BHP and Rio Tinto, says the response from the investment community following the Juukan disaster has been significant, in part due to the ever-rising awareness among asset owners and managers of the importance of ESG risks and their ability to act and engage rapidly when issues like these arise.

Danielle Welsh-Rose, Aberdeens ESG investment director for Asia-Pacific, says there appeared to be a heightened focus on traditional owner issues emerging across the industry and a likely reframing of the sector's social licence to operate.

"Weve already seen BHP pausing part of their expansion project in South Flank, and there are commentators talking about whether some sites should be permanently protected for environmental and social value," Welsh-Rose tells the Age and Herald. "That will become part of the broader conversation, where it hasnt been part of the conversation before."

As well, the investment company says, the timing of the gorges destruction coinciding with the Black Lives Matter movement sweeping the world has "amplified" wider concerns surrounding inequality.

"The intersection with the global Black Lives Matter movement means there is a lot of extra scrutiny because of this inequality conversation," Welsh-Rose says.

"Changing community expectations do lead to pressure on companies and pressure on investors to change, and that might speed up any changes that happen in this area."

Mary Delahunty, the head of impact at $52 billion super fund HESTA, says the investment community has undertaken a crash course in traditional owner land rights following the "horror of Rios issues".

"Ive learnt more about this in the last two weeks then I have through all my formal education," she says. "There is room for improvement, we are really conscious to do that very quickly."

The failure of mining companies to demonstrate robust processes for engaging with traditional owners could have consequences that go far beyond a hit to their reputation.

Similar to the aftermath of Australias banking royal commission, social issues often such as these end up being prosecuted through tougher regulatory reforms and much higher cost of compliance, says Whitton.

"In this case, you can well and truly imagine the response to this being an Indigenous consultation framework that is even more thorough than the existing one, and an approval process that is more thorough than the existing one," she says. "And these will weigh on costs."

What is also likely to happen, she says, is boards of poorly performing companies will find themselves on the receiving end of significant investor demands both in behind-the-scenes engagements and facing the threat of protest votes at their annual general meetings, as well as greater attention from investor activists.

While miners, investors and lawmakers ponder what change might look like, First Nations people like Gomeroi man Steve Talbott are doubtful at the likelihood of being given a meaningful say.

"Every time they change the act its not for the better its for the worse. You go around every state in the country and theyre watering down the culture and heritage act," he says. "Its just frustrating. Its like banging your head against a brick wall. Weve been fighting and arguing the point for years."

Talbott, who has been working in land rights since 1983, says traditional owners need to be given veto power over projects that destroy culturally significant sites and gag orders that prevent Indigenous groups objecting publicly to works must not be used.

"Weve been told for over 230 years by governments whats important to us and what isnt. Its about time, we as Aboriginal people, stood up and took control of our own culture rather than people telling us whats important."

Business reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

Charlotte is a reporter for The Age.

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Rocked to the core: Mining giants confront an ancient, incalculable risk - Sydney Morning Herald