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Rio Tinto has appointed Bold Baatar as chief commercial officer, cementing the charismatic Mongolian national’s position as a front runner to eventually become the Anglo-Australian mining group’s next boss.
Baatar, who joined Rio in 2013 and helped the world’s second-largest mining group turn around the underground expansion of the vast Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia, will take over from Alf Barrios in heading the company’s global commercial and business activities in September.
Baatar is widely viewed among investors and analysts as a leading candidate to ultimately succeed Jakob Stausholm as chief executive, who has steadied the iron ore, copper and aluminium producer since 2021 after outcry over its cultural issues.
“This is, potentially, a further step in the direction of him eventually becoming CEO of Rio Tinto,” said Richard Hatch, analyst at Berenberg, although he added that he did not expect this to happen in the near term.
Simon Trott, a veteran at Rio who runs its iron ore business, and Peter Cunningham, the company’s chief financial officer, are seen as other contenders for the top job.
Joining Rio after a career as an investment banker at JPMorgan in New York and London, Baatar has developed a reputation as one of the mining industry’s most dynamic executives, with a capacity to fix complicated problems with governments and partners.
He will retain responsibility for delivering the Simandou iron ore mine in Guinea — the world’s largest-ever mining project that Rio is developing in partnership with at least seven other companies, including five from China — as well as taking on business development.
“Bold is ideally suited to help deliver our strategy of building a stronger Rio Tinto for the future and growing with discipline,” said Stausholm.
Stausholm has proved a steady influence at Rio for investors at it attempts to rebuild its reputation following international furore over the destruction of two 46,000-year-old Aboriginal rock shelters as part of a mine expansion, and revelations surrounding a toxic culture in which bullying, discrimination and abuse were rampant.
One of Stausholm’s key achievements has been the restructuring of Oyu Tolgoi — something that came under Baatar’s wing when he became chief executive of copper in 2021 — by pushing through the $3.3bn takeover of minority shareholder Turquoise Hill.
The appointment of Baatar as commercial chief comes a week after Rio Tinto’s annual general meeting, where it faced growing complaints from investors over its environmental record.
The ethics adviser to Norway’s $1.5tn sovereign wealth fund, which holds 2 per cent of the group, made a draft recommendation to divest Rio because of deforestation activity linked to the Mineração Rio do Norte bauxite mine in Brazil.
Rio said that while it does not operate the mine, it “has been working to progressively improve its environmental and social performance to meet industry best practice and our expectations as a shareholder” and will continue to do so.
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