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Message: RIO CEO - Albany Project
Rio Tinto's mineral and diamonds chief Alan Davies. Source: News Corp Australia
RIO TINTO and BHP Billiton, in lock-step in their views on iron ore and copper, are becoming divergent on the outlook for potash, the fertiliser BHP is hoping will add a “fifth pillar” to its business.
While BHP has now committed $US3.8 billion ($4.8bn) to a project in Canada that has no first production date, Rio minerals and diamonds boss Alan Davies says he will not put more into the company’s fledgling Albany project, which is in the same Saskatchewan basin BHP is in.
“I think the market is going through a period of oversupply, there’s some new projects coming on and we are pulling back,” says Davies, who now has the Rio job BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie held before defecting in 2008 and playing a big part in BHP’s potash ambitions.
“We’ve got a good resource, but potash is not on our agenda to allocate capital to — I think there are too many signs in the market it needs a period to adjust,” Davies says.
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