Glencore to buy Rio Tinto’s coal projects

RIO Tinto will sell two Australian coal projects in the Bowen Basin to Swiss mining titan Glencore for more than $2 billion.

RIO Tinto will sell two Australian coal projects to Swiss mining titan Glencore for more than $2 billion.

The deal, announced on Tuesday night, involves the sale of Rio’s 82 per cent stake in the Hail Creek mine in the northern Bowen Basin and its 71 per cent stake in the undeveloped Valeria project in the central Bowen Basin.

TERRY MCCRANN: BHP, RIO TINTO — THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE BIG TWO MINERS

MINERALS BODY BENDS TO KEEP BHP’S MONEY

BHP CHIEF A DONALD TRUMP ‘DISBELIEVER’

RIO TINTO DECLARES RECORD FIRST-HALF DIVIDEND

The sale price for both the Queensland assets clocks in at $US1.7 billion ($2.21 billion)

Rio chief Jean-Sebastien Jacques said the sale delivered value to the company’s shareholders and was consistent with Rio’s strategy of strengthening its portfolio and focusing on high returns.

“We expect that Hail Creek will continue to perform strongly under its new owner,,” he said in a statement.

The announcement came shortly before Mr Jaques spoke at a conference in Melbourne, where he said leaders needed to “loosen up”, speak more plainly and tackle their detractors head on using social media.

It was clear the public mood had turned against big business in developed nations such as Australia, the US and Canada, he said.

Public anxiety over big business was being driven by the pace of change in modern life, particularly that linked to automation and new digital businesses, he said.

That was amplified by the rise of social media, which gave everyone a voice, the French-born chief of the Anglo-Australian mining heavyweight said.

Rio Tinto chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Public expectations around what role multinationals should play in society meant business leaders could no longer simply focus on their customers and shareholders, he said.

Instead they had to fully engage in wider issues such as climate change, the distribution of wealth and the impacts of disruptive technologies and explain not only what they did, but why they did it.

“Critics of business are sometimes focused on notions of what they think business is about — let’s show their thinking is outdated by being open about what we do and why we do it,” Mr Jacques said.

“We need to loosen up, talk straight and direct, be less focused on always saying the correct thing and recognise the world is changing rapidly, which means we need to adapt our style to stay relevant and current.

“Don’t be afraid to tackle the tough issues and detractors. Choose to do so through new ways of communicating: social media, networks, and people.”

Mr Jacques said that while new technology would result in job losses, it would also open up new roles. Rio’s iron ore mines in the Pilbara had become “the Silicon Valley of mining” as the miner led the world in introducing autonomous trucks and trains. Such technology was far more impressive than anything Tesla, Uber or Google had come up with in the space, he said.

“All this technology is pioneering — it is world-leading,” he said.

[e-mail]

with AAP