“It’s an interesting organization because it’s predominantly a British/North American/Australian presence – I think we’ve been able to meld that together pretty well. You don’t get a lot of encampments because, especially in the last ten years, we’ve moved people around so that we avoid the situation of any one nationality feeling that opportunities won’t be available to them.”

Not wanting the interview to turn into a party political broadcast, I reminded him that an article in the Wall Street Journal described Rio Tinto as “best known for being, well, dull…”

How do you react to that, I asked. Clifford didn’t get to be CEO without learning how to turn a question round. “Just three weeks after that article appeared we did a takeover that proves we’re not quite as boring as they might imagine. It was hailed as Rio pulls off a great deal.

“But in truth I don’t think we want to be seen as too flamboyant. We want to be seen as dependable, resilient and I think we deliver. In fact our economic performance is pretty hard to beat. We have a progressive dividend policy – and we haven’t reduced it within living memory. Certainly we don’t over promote ourselves but we think that’s not a bad thing.”

Nevertheless, a global mining company like Rio Tinto is a target for all kinds of lobby groups such as unions, environmentalists, anti-globalists and so on. How does Clifford cope with criticism of the company?

“If you ask my wife, she’ll say I come out like an Exocet missile,” Clifford answers. “Human nature is such that I’ll usually defend our corner pretty vigorously. But I suppose as time goes on I tend to be more tolerant. Your family and close friends can be a very good measure of that because they certainly won’t be polite if they think you’re talking a load of drivel.