Vedanta Hires Tom Albanese After Rio Tinto Sacking

Tom Albanese, the former Rio Tinto chief executive who was sacked in 2013 after mining assets he authorised the purchase of lost the group billions, is to become the boss of another mining giant, Vedanta Resources.

One year after Albanese was forced to step down from Rio Tinto, Vedanta hopes that his appointment as CEO will allow the company to directly rival it's FTSE 100 counterparts and bump it up from the FTSE 250.

"I'll focus on ensuring that the best of the businesses that we have are being delivered to full and true potential," he said in a media interview.

Albanese stepped down as head of the world's second-largest mining group in January last year after being CEO of the group since 2007.

He fell on his sword after a multi-billion writedown to the value of key mining assets that he directed the company to purchase less than five years ago.

Rio Tinto marked down the value of its Rio Tinto Alcan and Pacific Aluminium units by between $10bn (£6bn, €7.2bn) and $11bn and its coal operations in Mozambique - Riversdale Mining Ltd. - by $3bn.

"The Rio Tinto Board fully acknowledges that a write-down of this scale in relation to the relatively recent Mozambique acquisition is unacceptable," said Rio Tinto chairman Jan du Plessis in the statement at the time.

"We are also deeply disappointed to have to take a further substantial write-down in our aluminium businesses, albeit in an industry that continues to experience significant adverse changes globally."

Albanese was CEO of the group when the Alcan acquisition took place.

However, walked away with around 48,000 Rio shares related to a 2009 four-year performance bonus worth around £1.6m.

He also received a further £10.7m in Rio share options, earned between 2003 and 2009.