Rio Tinto | Minerals and Metals for the world

Tom Albanese
Over this and the next few issues of Review, we invite you to meet the those responsible for leading Rio Tinto's key segments. Introducing Tom Albanese.

After nearly four years as chief executive of Rio Tinto's Industrial Minerals group, Tom Albanese, 46, will move on to take charge of Rio Tinto Exploration in August. Albanese has been responsible for a diverse portfolio of products ranging from borates and titanium dioxide feedstock to industrial salt and talc. With operating assets valued in excess of US$2bn, a turnover last year of US$1.8bn and a worldwide workforce of more than 6,500, the Industrial Minerals group is by any measure a mega-business.

Before joining Rio Tinto, Albanese was chief operating officer of Nerco Minerals but when Rio Tinto acquired Nerco in 1993, he came with it. Later that same year, he was appointed general manager of the Greens Creek gold, silver, zinc and lead mine on Admiralty Island in Alaska.

"That was the good news," Albanese says. "The bad news was that the mine had recently been closed in response to the tough market conditions then prevailing. My task was to lead a team that was working to develop a newly discovered high grade ore body at the mine. And I'm pleased to say that, as a result of that work, a decision was taken in 1995 to resume operations at Greens Creek."

By this time, Alaska had become a second home for Albanese. A third generation Italian American, he grew up on the east coast, in New Jersey, but in 1975 he had headed almost as far west as he could in order to attend the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. There he took a bachelor's degree in mineral economics and, two years later, a master's degree in mining engineering.



Tom Albanese Over this and the next few issues of Review, we invite you to meet the those responsible for leading Rio Tinto's key segments. Introducing Tom Albanese. After nearly four years as chief executive of Rio Tinto's Industrial Minerals group, Tom Albanese, 46, will move on to take charge of Rio Tinto Exploration in August. Albanese has been responsible for a diverse portfolio of products ranging from borates and titanium dioxide feedstock to industrial salt and talc. With operating assets valued in excess of US$2bn, a turnover last year of US$1.8bn and a worldwide workforce of more than 6,500, the Industrial Minerals group is by any measure a mega-business. Before joining Rio Tinto, Albanese was chief operating officer of Nerco Minerals but when Rio Tinto acquired Nerco in 1993, he came with it. Later that same year, he was appointed general manager of the Greens Creek gold, silver, zinc and lead mine on Admiralty Island in Alaska. "That was the good news," Albanese says. "The bad news was that the mine had recently been closed in response to the tough market conditions then prevailing. My task was to lead a team that was working to develop a newly discovered high grade ore body at the mine. And I'm pleased to say that, as a result of that work, a decision was taken in 1995 to resume operations at Greens Creek." By this time, Alaska had become a second home for Albanese. A third generation Italian American, he grew up on the east coast, in New Jersey, but in 1975 he had headed almost as far west as he could in order to attend the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. There he took a bachelor's degree in mineral economics and, two years later, a master's degree in mining engineering.
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