Tom Albanese

Tom Albanese was the chief executive of the global mining company Rio Tinto between 2007 and mid-January 2013.

Sacked over company's Mozambique coal expedition
In mid-January 2013 Rio Tinto announced that it had written off US$3 billion relating to Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique (RTCM) investments. In a media release Rio Tinto stated that "the development of infrastructure to support the coal assets is more challenging than Rio Tinto originally anticipated. Rio Tinto sought to transport coal by barge along the Zambezi River, but this option did not receive formal approvals.These infrastructure constraints, combined with a downward revision to estimates of recoverable coking coal volumes on the RTCM tenements, have led to a reassessment of the overall scale and ramp up schedule of RTCM, and consequently to the impairment announced today. Rio Tinto continues to engage with the Government of Mozambique on all transport infrastructure options."

At the same time the company announced that it had sacked Tom Albanese over this and other write downs. (Doug Ritchie, "who led the acquisition and integration of the Mozambique coal assets in his previous role as Energy chief executive", was also sacked at the same time.) Rio Tinto chairman Jan du Plessis said in the media release that "the Rio Tinto Board fully acknowledges that a write-down of this scale in relation to the relatively recent Mozambique acquisition is unacceptable."

Background
"Appointments and election: Director of Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited since March 2006. Tom was last elected by shareholders at the 2008 annual general meetings.

"Skills and experience: Tom joined Rio Tinto in 1993 on Rio Tinto's acquisition of Nerco and held a series of management positions before being appointed chief executive of the Industrial Minerals group in 2000, after which he became chief executive of the Copper group and head of Exploration in 2004. He took over as chief executive from Leigh Clifford with effect from May 2007."


 * Director of Ivanhoe Mines Limited from 2006 to 2007
 * Director of Palabora Mining Company from 2004 to 2006
 * Member of the Executive Committee of the International Copper Association from 2004 to 2006

External resources

 * Rio Tinto, "Tom Albanese: Chief executive", Rio Tinto website, January 2013. (Archived copy from January 2013).