Five years after the destruction of a rockshelter at Juukan Gorge, the PKKP Aboriginal Corporation has signed a Co-Management Agreement with Rio Tinto.

The agreement covers all Rio Tinto iron ore operations on Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Country and the Corporation said on Monday it "gives much greater say to Traditional Owners over what happens on these lands".

Pinikura Traditional Owner and Chairperson of PKKP Aboriginal Corporation, Terry Drage said the effect of the agreement is that "PKKP Traditional Owners will receive certainty that our important places on Country will be protected from mining, while at the same time Rio Tinto will receive certainty around where they can develop much earlier in the mine cycle".

"Ultimately, this is good for us as Traditional Owners, and it is good for business," Mr Drage said.

The destruction of Juukan Gorge caused significant distress to the PKKP community and sparked both global condemnation of Rio Tinto's actions and a parliamentary inquiry into the state of heritage legislation in Australia.

Puutu Kunti Kurrama Traditional Owner and Chairperson of the Puutu Kunti Kurrama Land Committee, Burchell Hayes said the PKKP Corporation has worked closely with Rio Tinto since the destruction of Juukan Gorge, and "have made significant progress in rebuilding our relationship".

"It is now where it should have been 14 years ago when we signed the Claim Wide Participation Agreement with Rio Tinto," he said.

"We have always said that relationships, not regulation, is what will protect our heritage, our culture and our Country, and this is the key behind Co-Management.

Rio Tinto Iron Ore Chief Executive Simon Trott said the destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters on the 24th of May 2020 brought "immeasurable pain" to the PKKP and "profoundly changed" Rio.

"Our actions were wrong. We failed to uphold our company values, and our systems and processes were inadequate. Simply put, it should never have happened, and for that we will forever be sorry," he said.

"Through the open and gracious sharing of knowledge and experiences, the PKKP have helped to shape a renewed approach to managing cultural heritage protection and mining activities."

The Co-Management Agreement includes commitments for each party to work together earlier and throughout all stages of mining, from before exploration through to construction and operation, then closure using an agreed framework known as the Early Engagement Framework.

PKKP Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Grant Wilson the arrangement is "a groundbreaking and innovative" agreement.

"I believe it will change the way mining is carried out, certainly in the Pilbara, and hopefully across Australia," he said.

"The PKKP community have made it clear to me that they are not against mining, it just has to be undertaken in a culturally sensitive way, with Traditional Owners at the forefront. We have embedded in this agreement early and open communication about heritage and the mine plan, as well as the principle of free, prior and informed consent."

Free, prior and informed consent is one of the pillars of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to which Australia is a signatory but is yet to ratify in domestic legislation.

"We will still have disagreements, but the idea is we will work together proactively to solve those problems through the co management process," Mr Wilson said.

PKKP Aboriginal Corporation Chief Heritage Officer, Dr Jordan Ralph, said the idea behind the early engagement framework is simple.

"In the past, mining companies would only start engaging meaningfully with Traditional Owners at the end of their study process, after they have spent lots of capital and have put all their eggs in one basket by making key decisions without Traditional Owner involvement," he said.

"Changing their plan at that point, once they've already told the market their mineable resource, and have already spent enormous amounts of money on these plans is a very difficult thing for a mining company to do, financially speaking.

"What we've done here is remove that situation from the equation. We engage early, we give the mine planners the information they need, we remove important heritage from the mine plan, and we design the mine together.

PKKP Aboriginal Corporation said the Co-Management Agreement features "strong commitments" about the way in which important sites that will not be impacted by mining will be actively managed, through buffers, blast management and fencing.

Mr Drage said PKKP Traditional Owners "deal with a lot of different mining companies, and we never get a say over what kinds of buffers are put on our heritage or what other types of protections are put in place… Mining companies normally keep that to themselves and use their own standards without our involvement".

"It's been a long journey with Rio Tinto, but the journey has only really just begun", he said.

Dr Ralph said PKKP has, through the agreement, developed a Heritage Protocol with Rio Tinto which includes agreed heritage management strategies like buffers.

"Ultimately, these will need to be included in a Heritage Management Plan before the work can proceed," Dr Ralph said.

"What we've agreed with Rio Tinto is far beyond the protections in the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 and gives us a much better chance at preserving PKKP heritage than any government legislation."