Rio Tinto Group Wholly Owns and Operates

¶ … Rio Tinto Group wholly owns and operates mining and processing ventures under the holding Rio Tinto Iron Ore Group. This group is largely focused on projects in North America and Australia. Development projects are underway in West Africa and India but are currently uninvolved in the iron ore projects in Mozambique and Tanzania (Rio Tinto Iron Ore 2011). Regarding subsidiary management, the Rio Tinto Group has made clear that they require all of their subsidiaries to develop independent programs to remain in compliance with the Group's policies, such as the sustainable develop initiative the Group developed in response to climate change (Rio Tinto 2011). The Group stated all of their subsidiaries are required to develop three-year programs to bring them into compliance with Rio Tinto's policies.

Rio Tinto, like other mining multinational enterprises, has encountered a shortage of mining inputs such as tires, due to the huge expansion in demand of mined metals worldwide. Rio Tinto's response to the shortages began in 1998 when the Group leveraged its spending toward larger-scale resource acquisitions which, over the past decade, has resulted in a fully integrated global procurement strategy which has widened profit margins (Rio Tinto 2006).

Rio Tinto's coordination and support systems are being rapidly modernized and largely automated through an initiative starting in Perth, Australia, called "Mines of the Future" (MOF). This large-scale civilian robotics project, the largest of its kind, will result in the automation of on-site transportation as well as equipment maneuvering and packaging. The creation of an operations center in Australia for all projects moving into MOF operation will reduce the number of staff needed in the ground in foreign territories, instead relying on fiber optic and satellite communication. The accuracy and coordination aspects of the mining work are greatly improved in MOF projects, none of which have been started in Africa, thus far (Grad 2010).

Corporations interested in expanding operations to Mozambique and Tanzania should be prepared for years of assessment and development at the managerial level. A recent Rio Tinto publication regarding operations in Madagascar quoted a mining manager who performed assessments in the country between 1989 and 2001 in order to ready the area for industrial activity. Rio Tinto also found it necessary to create culturally competent informational resources in order to explain the plan for the area to the local population. The infrastructural development efforts of Rio Tinto have extended beyond the creation of material resources. Rio Tinto management has paired with NGO projects in target countries, including Mozambique, to implement health education and community betterment projects, in an effort to uplift sociocultural and medical conditions as well as economic conditions

Rio Tinto has endeavored to make certain that mining practices do not interfere negatively with indigenous livelihoods, particularly subsistence farming, one of the chief occupations in Mozambique. Site managers worked to insure that drill rigs did not interfere with cultivated areas through community relation efforts, though did make compensations to farmers when such preservation efforts were not feasible.