Strange as it may sound there is never a good time to win one of the world’s top mining jobs, as Tom Albanese, the 49-year-old American who takes the helm at Rio Tinto on May 1, is about to discover.

In tough times, which certainly does not describe the current situation, the working days of the New Jersey-born, Alaska-educated Albanese would be all about the dreadful business of cutting costs.

In a boom, which is precisely the market conditions being inherited by the smoothly spoken geologist with sideline qualifications in mineral economics and mining engineering, it is all about hoping that he is not the one at the helm when profits, and the Rio Tinto share price, start to head south.

Albanese dismisses these worries without a blink of the eye.

“At any point in the market, and you really can’t pick where you are in the cycle until you have benefit of hindsight, there are a separate set of challenges,” he said.

“I would not think by any means that I’ve been handed a poisoned chalice. I’ve been handed the challenges of prosperity in terms of dealing with a very tough market for most of the things we need to run our business.”

Analysing those comments throws a little light on the Albanese personality, but not much. Like so many Americans he has learned well the public relations lesson of using a lot of words, without actually saying a great deal.

Throughout a conversation with the Rio Tinto heir apparent there is a consistency in the predictability in his answers.

Rio Tinto under Albanese will:

+ Continue to focus on value creation;

+ Be very respectful of the laws of the countries in which it operates;

+ Look for world-class mining assets wherever they might be;

+ Remain interested in joint ventures with junior mining companies; and

+ Remain a firm believer in a continuation of the strong growth in emerging economies, especially China.

To really understand what Rio Tinto will be like under Albanese we will all have to wait until the new man slips his shoes under the chief executive’s desk. Until then, everything he says is coloured with caution, simply because he is not yet the top man. That title remains with the outgoing Australian-born CEO, Leigh Clifford.

Attempts to scrutinise the intentions of the new man have naturally led to assumptions about Albanese using his hands-on geological knowledge to boost Rio Tinto’s exploration effort, or to grow the company’s North American presence because that is his natural comfort zone.

But, to do that overlooks that fact that Albanese is the man who oversaw Rio Tinto’s first cautious steps into Russia in joint venture with Norilsk Nickel and the man who handled the move into Mongolia with Ivanhoe Mines.

There is no avoiding his early years as a geologist, and then company manager in Alaska, but it is naive to assume that this has blinkered his vision of global opportunities.

At risk of being out of step with some generally accepted views it seems wrong to assign a stereotype to Albanese. Just because he studied geology does not mean his world revolves around exploration – it simply means he understands it, and the value it can create.

A more likely first course of action for Albanese is in the corporate arena where Rio Tinto is in danger of being left behind by more aggressive resource companies such as Xstrata and CVRD which have been busy snapping up bargains in the Canadian nickel industry.

If Albanese does not take a dramatic step, such as a substantial acquisition, Rio Tinto will forfeit its place as the world’s No. 2 mining house – and itself become a takeover target.

No amount of exploration, given the decade (and more) it can take to develop a major new mine, can achieve that same dramatic growth impact as a big acquisition.

Albanese, naturally, is coy on the subject of a big ticket acquisition, such as a joint bid for Alcoa with BHP Billiton, providing the standard answer: “We don’t comment on speculation.”

The rest of the conversation with Albanese reveals a little of the man and his thinking, such as his thoughts on:

The challenge of operating a big mining company in third world countries – “The licence to operate is becoming quite important,” he said. “Part of that is a consequence of higher commodity prices. But I think the most important part is as a consequence of globalisation. You now have better communications. You have a greater opportunity for people in emerging countries, developing countries, and developed countries, to have higher expectations for what a mining company should bring to the table.”

His management style. Will it be more aggressive as some observers have speculated – “The entire management team of Rio Tinto is instilled with the principles of value creation and the avoidance of value destruction. Of course, everyone has his own style in how they go about that. I feel that with my background in the mining sector I have an intimate understanding of the exploration side of the business and experience working in many countries.”

On Rio Tinto becoming more expansionist – “Rio Tinto has the benefit of having more than 85 percent of its asset base in OECD (western world) countries, notably Australia, the US and Canada. What that does is provide us with a tremendous base load of earnings power in political and economically stable countries. Our strategy is to chase the best ore bodies wherever they are in the world, which gives us the ability to take measured risks in countries like Madagascar, Russia and Mongolia without tipping the overall risk balance.”

On the challenge for Rio Tinto to match last year’s $US7.34 billion profit – “We’re all dealing with tight supply chains, shortages of tyres, shortages of professionals, shortages of tradespeople, pressure by some countries to increase taxes, but three years ago we would have loved to have these problems.”

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