Rio Tinto fires senior staff over payments to consultants
Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto has fired two senior executives following an investigation into alleged payments of £8.5m ($10.5m) to consultants in relation to the Simandou project in Guinea. As we reported previously, energy and minerals head Alan Davies was suspended last week and head of legal affairs Debra Valentine has resigned. Last month, Rio Tinto sold its shares in Simandou, which contains the world's largest untapped iron ore deposit, to Chinese consortium Chinalco. 

Rio Tinto has fired two senior executives after an internal investigation into US$10.5m (£8.5m) in payments linked to the world’s biggest untapped iron ore deposit in Guinea.



The Anglo-Australian firm last week said it had launched an investigation and notified American, British and Australian regulatory authorities.

It did so after becoming aware in August of email correspondence from 2011 relating to the payments “made to a consultant providing advisory services” for the massive Simandou iron ore project.

Rio in 2014 sealed a US$20bn deal with a Chinese consortium led by state-run aluminium group Chinalco for Simandou, Africa’s biggest-ever mining and infrastructure venture.

But last month it announced the sale of its 46.6% holding to Chinalco, which previously held a 41.3% stake.

One of the executives, energy and minerals head Alan Davies, who was accountable for Simandou in 2011, was suspended last week while legal affairs chief Debra Valentine stepped down.

“The board’s decision does not pre-judge the course of any external enquiries into this matter,” Rio said in a statement announcing the pair’s contracts had been “terminated”.

“However, the board concluded that the executives failed to maintain the standards expected of them under our global code of conduct.”

It gave no further details.

Davies said his sacking was a “great surprise”.

“There are no grounds for the termination of my employment... My rights are fully reserved, and I have been left with no option but to take the strongest possible legal action in response,” he said, according to The Australian Financial Review.

Shares in Rio were trading 0.88% higher at A$57.44 in Sydney on Thursday.

“I think the announcement has given investors the view that the company has dealt quickly and decisively with what could have been a serious issue,” CMC Markets strategist Michael McCarthy told AFP.

“The bearish aspect to this news was the potential that it might reveal a culture that’s built around this or it might imperil a number of other operations. The moves this morning have given investors confidence that this was a one-off.”