Australia-based miner Rio Tinto has announced that it will register an impairment charge of $3 billion in its financial results for 2012 due to underperformance of its Mozambican coal business and an additional $10 billion write-down from its Canadian aluminum operations.
Rio Tinto stated that a $3 billion write-down in relation to the relatively recent Mozambique acquisition is unacceptable, adding that Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese and Doug Ritchie, who led the acquisition and integration of the Mozambique coal assets in his previous role as energy chief executive, have stepped down by mutual agreement.
During 2011, Rio Tinto completed the acquisition of the Australian coal miner Riversdale and renamed it as Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique.