The move to better align the group’s assets with its business strategy via
a corporate reshuffling comes under Rio Tinto’s new chief executive officer
Jean-Sébastien Jacques
(pictured, right), who will succeed Sam Walsh on July 2.
Arnaud Soirat, currently the head of the
company’s aluminum primary metal division
(below), will be the London-based CEO of the merged copper
and diamonds unit and join Rio Tinto’s executive committee.
The decision to
join the divisions will combine Rio Tinto’s two marketing-led businesses into a
single product group and help the company maximize its technical underground
mining expertise, it said.
Alan Davies, currently CEO of diamonds and minerals, will become head of energy and minerals.
The changes, effective July 2, come as Rio Tinto
restructures itself into four different product groups: aluminum; copper and
diamonds; energy and minerals; and iron ore. In addition, there will be a newly
shaped growth and innovation group focusing on future assets and technical
support.
The company also named a new executive committee that will
have ten members, each with more than 20 years’ experience in the resources
sector.
Our strategy, commitment to balance-sheet strength and
focus on shareholder returns will not change,” Jacques said. “But we are
strengthening our structure and delivery by placing our assets at the heart of
the business to drive improved performance.”
Rio Tinto’s streamlining comes close on the heels of a reorganization
of the diamonds and minerals groups that saw Simon Trott
appointed
managing director of diamonds, salt and uranium. Jean-Marc Lieberherr – who
previously led just the diamonds division – exited to
head up the Diamond
Producers Association.
Rio Tinto plans to
increase diamond production in 2016 to 21 million of carats, with output from
its Diavik mine in Canada surging 26 percent in the first quarter. Diamond
sales
slumped
23 percent in 2015 on lower rough prices, the company said.
Rio Tinto’s decision to rejig follows a similar move by Anglo
American in the fourth quarter of 2015 when it
streamlined
the global mining group into three core businesses, of which diamonds was
one.