MELBOURNE, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jean-Sébastien Jacques said on Friday the company has found no communication indicating that his predecessor sought to block the controversial blasting of two sacred caves to tap high grade iron ore.

Jacques was responding to a Senate enquiry question about a report in the Australian Financial Review on Friday quoting former Chief Executive Sam Walsh as saying that he had issued instructions that Juukan Gorge "was not to be mined".

Jacques said the first he heard of that was from the media and the company's external lawyers have found no such instructions in their review of the mine planning from 2003 to 2020.

"Based on the information gathered to date we couldn't find any communication referred by Mr Walsh as indicated in the press this morning," Jacques said.

(Reporting by Sonali Paul Editing by Shri Navaratnam)