Rio Tinto came under severe criticism in May this year after it went ahead with blowing up the Juukan Gorge rock shelters, sacred Aboriginal sites which showed evidence of continuous human habitation dating back 46,000 years.

The sites were above about eight million tonnes of high-grade iron ore, with an estimated value at the time of £75m.

The public outcry led to a board review of cultural heritage management. Following publication of its report, Rio Tinto announced cuts to performance-related bonuses due to its senior team.

Chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques will lose £2.7m, while Chris Salisbury, chief executive of Iron Ore, will forego A$1,106,000 (£604,760), and Simone Niven, group executive, corporate relations, will miss out on £525,000.

The report makes a number of recommendations, including strengthening the group’s audit capability through the introduction of more effective internal audits to ensure conformance with Rio Tinto and independent international heritage standards and guidelines.

It also call for better oversight of operational, communities and heritage practices and performance by establishing a new social performance function reporting to the group executive, as was as strengthening board oversight and assurance to enhance governance and overall accountability.

Simon Thompson, chairman of Rio Tinto, said: ‘We will implement important new measures and governance to ensure we do not repeat what happened at Juukan Gorge and we will continue our work to rebuild trust with the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people.

‘It is clear that no single individual or error was responsible for the destruction of the Juukan rockshelters, but there were numerous missed opportunities over almost a decade and the company failed to uphold one of Rio Tinto’s core values – respect for local communities and for their heritage.

‘We are determined to learn, improve and rebuild trust across various internal and external partners.’