Senior Executives Sacked Over $10.5m Payments Linked to Guinea mine by Rio Tinto

 Rio Tinto said the executives ‘failed to maintain the standards expected of them under our global code of conduct 

Rio Tonto has fired two senior executives after an internal investigation into US$10.5m (£8.5m) in payments linked to the world’s biggest untapped iron ore deposit in Guinea. The mining company fires Alan Davies and Debra Valentine amid investigation into money paid for ‘advisory services’

The Anglo-Australian firm last week said it had launched an investigation and notified American, British and Australian regulatory authorities.

It did so after becoming aware in August of email correspondence from 2011 relating to the payments “made to a consultant providing advisory services” for the massive Simandou iron ore project.

Rio in 2014 sealed a US$20bn deal with a Chinese consortium led by state-run aluminium group Chinalco for Simandou, Africa’s biggest-ever mining and infrastructure venture.