Yesterday, Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese gave a keynote lunch speech on the last day of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s annual convention in Toronto, Canada. The following is a brief summary of some of his major points.

One of his first comments was on how pleased Rio Tinto was to expand into Canada with the friendly takeover of Alcan. The company now has 14,800 employees in this country, of which 10,300 are with Rio Tinto Alcan.

Albanese is a strong believer in the commodity super-cycle and feels the American economic problems will not impact the mining industry. “Important as the US is to the world economy, it is not as influential as it once was to the global demand for metals and minerals. We are firmly of the view there is an economic de-linkage between China on one hand and the rest of the world, especially the US, on the other,” said Albanese.

Rio Tinto feels that a possible US recession will only impact Chinese GDP growth by about one per cent or less.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tom Albanese succeeded Leigh Clifford’s seven-year tenure as chief executive of Rio Tinto, in May 2007.

Albanese was born in 1957 and grew up in New Jersey. He attended the University of Alaska in Fairbanks where he received a bachelor’s degree in mineral economics and a master’s degree in mining engineering.

He held a number of positions with Nerco Minerals, and was chief operating officer at the time of its acquisition by Rio Tinto in 1993. Later that year he was appointed general manager of Rio Tinto’s Greens Creek gold, silver, zinc and lead mine on Admiralty Island, Alaska, where he led a team that was working to develop a newly discovered high grade orebody at the mine.

He moved to London in 1995 where he took up the post of Group exploration executive. Three years later he became vice-president of Kennecott Utah Copper at the Bingham Canyon copper mine outside Salt Lake City.

When Rio Tinto acquired a majority holding in North Ltd in Australia in 2000 Albanese transferred to Melbourne as its managing director. In this role he oversaw strategic reviews of North’s operations and the integration of its key businesses into Rio Tinto’s product group structure.

He was appointed chief executive of Rio Tinto’s Industrial Minerals group based in London, with responsibility for the Group’s borates, talc and titanium dioxide operations, before becoming chief executive, Copper and Exploration, in 2004.

Albanese joined the board of directors in March, 2006 and became director, Group Resources in July, with responsibility for Exploration, Operational and Technical Excellence, Human Resources, Communications and External Relations and Global Business Services.

Recently Tom has been involved in developing the joint venture exploration agreement with Norilsk Nickel in Russia, and in Rio Tinto’s investments in La Granja in Peru and Ivanhoe Mining’s Oyu Tolgoi copper project in Mongolia.

Previously it was noted that the lot of a Sudbury prospector was one beset with many difficulties. A. Hoffman Smith, a resident of Sudbury since 1883, had stated in 1894 that Algoma was the most difficult area in North America to prospect.

Having already examined some of the actual problems associated with locating a site, today we will discuss the difficulties associated with securing a site and conclude with a discussion of what, to two early pioneers, was the ideal prospector.

Once a site had been located, a prospector had to secure the prospect. Unfortunately the central office was over 300 miles distant in Toronto. On occasion, his affidavits and applications, once they had arrived, might remain unrecognized for weeks. Read the rest of this entry »