The Australian at the helm of the world's biggest gold multinational, Newmont president Tom Palmer, says he wants to continue at the gold miner amid speculation he would be the ideal person to lead Rio Tinto's re-engagement with Australia.

Mr Palmer spent two decades at Rio before being poached by Newmont in March 2014 and his experience running a $US54 billion ($73.8 billion) company that mines in eight nations has put him in the frame to replace Rio's ousted boss Jean-Sebastien Jacques.