Businessweek

Eleanor Evans has been appointed company secretary of Rio Tinto plc and joint company secretary of Rio Tinto Ltd., effective from 7 June 2013. Ben Mathews has informed the Group of his intention to resign from the role of company secretary of Rio Tinto plc and joint company secretary of Rio Tinto Limited with effect from the same date. Ms Evans will be based in London. Tim Paine continues to be joint company secretary of Rio Tinto Limited, based in Melbourne.

Rio Tinto Plc announced that it plans to cut at least 70 jobs at its Mozambique coal operations in 2013, dragged down by operational losses at Mozambique in 2012. The planned redundancies include 50 local positions and 20 expatriate roles from mining support to operations such as exploration and research.

Australian supreme court has stated that the Rio Tinto plc is entitled to pay royalty Gina Rinehart and Angela Bennett and her brother Michael Wright, passing a ruling in favor of plaintiffs. The Wright and Rinehart families have won $200 million lawsuit against Rio Tinto over the two iron ore resources, Channar mine and the Eastern Range mine, in Western Australia. The Wright and Rinehart families issued a lawsuit against Rio Tinto claiming royalty of more than 20 years from iron ore beneath about 150km of the Pilbara. The complainant cited an agreement singed on 5 May 1970 by their predecessors, Lang Hancock and Peter Wright. Rio Tinto, however, asserted that it did not owe royalties to the descendants of Hancock and Wright claiming that the company had lost the control of the land from 1974, before resuming it again in 1979.

The Carlyle Group LP (NasdaqGS:CG) has reportedly bid for Rio Tinto plc (LSE:RIO)'s majority stake in an Australian copper-gold mine, a person familiar with the matter said. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (NYSE:KKR) had earlier shown an interest in Rio's Northparkes mine in New South Wales state, but didn't follow up with an indicative offer ahead of this week's deadline for bids, another person said. Rio is looking to sell assets like Northparkes as part of a broader strategy to cut costs and focus on increasing returns to shareholders. It has also put stakes in some Australian coal mines and its Canadian iron ore operations up for sale, people familiar with the matter said. A spokesman for Rio Tinto declined to comment to Dow Jones.

Rio Tinto plc announced that the company would shed more jobs in Australia as part of its plan to cut costs and save $5 billion over two years.