MELBOURNE: Rio Tinto, the world’s second-largest miner, has suspended one senior executive, accepted the resignation of a second and alerted US and UK authorities after discovering US$10.5mil in unexplained payments to a consultant in Guinea.
Rio said on Wednesday it had launched an investigation after becoming aware on Aug 29 about emails from 2011 that referred to contractual payments to an unidentified consultant relating to its project in the Simandou mountains, which contain the world’s largest untapped iron ore deposits.