Four years after mining giant Rio Tinto swept out its veteran managers to make way for a new generation of business heads, its leadership team has come unstuck.
The world’s biggest iron ore miner is looking for a new chief and iron ore boss after they allowed the blasting of ancient Aboriginal rock shelters to expand a mine in Western Australia against the wishes of the traditional owners.
Investors and analysts saw no clear internal candidates and said following the damage done to the company’s reputation, it was likely Rio would tap an outsider to replace Frenchman Jean-Sébastien Jacques.
"Clearly from the comments of the chairman they want to reset the culture, which would imply an external candidate would be more likely than an internal one," said Macquarie analyst Hayden Bairstow.