Beekeeper Steve Breckenridge helps Rio Tinto bees find their forever home. The bees at the Rio Tinto borates mine in the Mojave Desert, in California, are pretty good at finding places that protect their colonies from the elements and predators. But they don’t much care where that shelter is. Not that long ago, it was inside a pump, right by a busy walkway, and that just wasn’t safe for employees.

For over 40 years, local beekeeper Steve Breckenridge has been working with Rio Tinto to protect bees – and the Kern County, California, environment. But really, it’s all about the bees: “It’s basically about protection. The bees will literally go anywhere they can find a safe place to live. I’ve seen a swarm gather round a tank of sulphuric acid, and, in the 1980s, I even found bees at the bottom of the mine pit, under the cab of a working shovel!”

From wildflowers to almond trees, Rio Tinto also believe deeply in conserving biodiversity. That’s why the company works with Breckenridge. His job is to rehouse these California bees so they can first contribute to biodiversity around the mine site. On Boron Operations’ 31 km2 conservation land, adjacent to the mine, the bees forage on wildflowers, and help to pollinate the local flora. They can later be moved near commercial orchards to pollinate crops like almonds, cherries, plums and avocados.

Breckenridge loves how protecting bees – his life’s work – helps the people and environment of Kern County. “It’s a beautiful thing when you can get the bees from the site and that can help the conservation land as well, which furthers the environmental work they’re doing there at the mine. It completes the circle.”