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Rio Tinto has named Simon Trott as chief executive following the surprise exit of Jakob Stausholm, tasking the company veteran with steering the miner during a period of industry consolidation.
The FTSE 100 company said Trott, who heads Rio’s iron ore business, would take the top job on August 25.
The Australian executive, a 25-year veteran, will take the helm as the company is working on integrating its new lithium business, and has been considering whether to pursue bigger deals with rival miners.
Rio, the world’s second-largest mining company, held preliminary merger talks with Swiss miner Glencore last year but failed to strike a deal.
Richard Hatch, analyst at Berenberg, said Trott was the “consistency candidate” who “telegraphs the status quo for Rio”.
The appointment “may open the door slightly for Glencore to come into the picture”, Hatch wrote in a research note, adding that Trott may be less aggressive than the other chief executive candidates in fighting back any offer.
Other internal candidates for the role included Bold Baatar, chief commercial officer, and Jérôme Pécresse, head of Rio’s aluminium unit.
Iron ore is Rio’s biggest business, accounting for the majority of profits last year, but the company has been diversifying by expanding in copper and lithium.
It is also planning to invest more in the US, where it owns a copper smelter and is working on developing the giant Resolution copper mine in Arizona.
While President Donald Trump’s tariffs on copper, aluminium and steel have rocked the metals industry, analysts said that Rio was well placed to benefit from the shifting US policies, relative to its rivals.
Trott will become Rio’s fourth chief executive in a decade, following the early departures of the previous three.
Under Stausholm, who led the company for nearly five years, the company struck several big lithium deals, including the all-cash $6.7bn acquisition of Arcadium.
Rio announced Stausholm’s unexpected departure in May, with the board saying it would seek a leader with more operational expertise.
Stausholm, whose background is in the energy industry, presided over a major push for cultural change at the mining company, which employs more than 60,000 people. His predecessor Jean-Sébastien Jacques was fired after the company blew up a sacred Aboriginal site in 2020.
Dominic Barton, chair of Rio, said: “Simon and the board are aligned that Rio Tinto’s next phase is about unlocking significant value for shareholders from our portfolio, driven by operational performance, and cost and financial discipline.”
Investment banker Simon Robey, a longtime Rio adviser, said Trott was “one of those rare people who has been somewhere for a long time, and can still bring freshness and independence of thinking.”
Robey worked with Trott during Rio’s defence against BHP’s takeover bid in 2008, when Trott was on the business development team.
“I thought then that he would end up running the company one day,” said Robey. “He’s really got a grip on stuff.”
Former Rio chief executive Leigh Clifford, who ran the company from 2000 to 2007, praised Trott’s appointment.
“If you grow up in Western Australia, as Simon did, you are living and breathing the mining industry,” said Clifford, who remains a shareholder.
“Iron ore is the engine room of the Rio Tinto organisation. Simon understands it, and he will be able to make sure that this momentum is continued.”
Company veteran Trott will earn a base salary of £1.3mn, in line with Stausholm’s in 2024. Rio’s share price rose 0.2 per cent on Tuesday on news of the appointment.