Major book on history of the venerable Rio Tinto published

Former Iluka Resources investor relations general manager Robert Porter has written a major book on the venerable Rio Tinto: Rio Tinto in Australia. The Origins and Formation of an International Resources Company. 1954-1995.Porter, who left Iluka in 2017, and who previously has written up the histories of both that company and Consolidated Gold Fields of Australia (plus another based on agricultural consultancy Gunn Rural Management), wrote the Rio Tinto tome after he was able to gain access to some - "though not all" - of the CRA business records."My work was independent, that is, not commissioned and probably not sanctioned and maybe not welcomed, but there you go, that is what independent histories are about," Porter told Mining Journal's sister publication, MNN.Excerpts suggest an eminently readable and fascinating 504-page history.Take for example when the author transports us back to October 27, 1958, and the opening of the Mary Kathleen uranium mine, which was attended by Prime Minister Robert Menzies, the Queensland Premier, and London and Australian management."Visitors were flown to site on a chartered Viscount aircraft and toured the mine site, plant facilities, Corella Dam and village.[i] At the official opening Menzies conveyed how impressed he was with the development, ‘the most remarkable model town I have ever seen in my life', not least for its ‘fully grassed cricket ground'.[ii] Dame Pattie Menzies awarded a trophy for the winner of the home garden contest, followed by an open-air dinner of chicken and lobster on the sports oval."Porter's relaying of the characters involved in the Rio/CRA history looks similarly excellently realised:"Many individuals played a role in CRA's development, not least legendary mining figure, Sir Maurice Mawby, regarded as one of Australia's most significant post-war mining individuals. Broken Hill born and educated, under his direction the Australian portfolio was transformed during the 1960s and early 1970s. Mawby, working in an exempt industry, had been involved in various technical missions during the Second World War. This enabled him to establish extensive relationships with the leaders in international mining companies, as well as politicians and public servants in Australia, not least Robert Menzies and Charles Court. In turn, these were instrumental in facilitating bold nation building outcomes."Rod Carnegie was appointed to CRA as Mawby's successor in 1970. The appointment was made after CRA had tried, unsuccessfully, to attract Charles Court to the role of managing director, with the aim that he would succeed Mawby as chairman. Court declined the offer ‘with the utmost reluctance', writing to Val Duncan:‘I am a great admirer of all you and Maurie have done & are going to do. It is the type of progressive development approach I love to work with but I genuinely feel you are exposing yourselves to too much risk of criticism - unfair though it might be to both of us - if an understanding about my future role existed at this critical time … I am sure you will understand & appreciate my unenviable position.'[iii]"Carnegie, aged 37 years, could not have been more different to Mawby in terms of background and experience. At the time it was still rare for chief executives to be appointed from outside of the company concerned. In the case of a mining company, it was also unusual for a chief executive not to be trained as a mining engineer. Carnegie was neither. Melbourne, Oxford and Harvard university educated, Carnegie worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Co in New York. He would be described as one of the nation's brightest business executives, knighted for his services to industry at the age of 45 years."Not a classic mining man, Carnegie was the personification of a new kind of business executive in Australia. Carnegie recalled that he suffered two major disadvantages when he joined CRA - he had not come from Broken Hill, and he wasn't a mining engineer.[iv] One of his initial difficulties was that he was not part of the ‘Broken Hill Mining Managers Club' and, as such, had not got his ‘ticket'.[v] Carnegie recalled his first career decision as an executive director of CRA. One of the CRA executive directors came into his office to say there was a woman wearing pants of the fourth level of the 95 Collins Street office. Carnegie went to investigate and thought the woman looked smart and he decided to do nothing. Then:‘I went up to the executive directors' lunch and said, "Wearing pants seems OK". Well, you would have thought I was in favour of establishing a brothel on the bottom floor. My colleagues were upset. I said "If everybody wants to make a policy statement, and sign it with their name, saying ‘in future no woman can come in except in a dress,' I'll implement it. I have no problem in carrying out whatever you wish to sign your name to." The air came out of that tire very quickly and pants continued to be worn.'[vi]Rio Tinto in Australia. The Origins and Formation of an International Resources Company. 1954-1995 by Robert Porter. 504 pages. ISBN:9871922815637Connor Court Publishing, 2023 https://tinyurl.com/5n84v84r[i] "Prime Minister Officially Opens Mary Kathleen", Queensland Government Mining Journal, Vol LIX, No 684, October 1958, p. 694[ii] Ibid.[iii] Ibid., pp. 3-4[iv] Interview with Sir Roderick Carnegie in 2007, State Library of Western Australia, OH4340/22[v] Roderick Carnegie, "Jacques and the Early Years in Australia", International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 2 (4), 2005, p. 342[vi] Ibid., p. 341

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