But as Albanese is the first to acknowledge, investing in exploration and mining in Russia is not without its difficulties. Take, for example, the legislative environment, which has not in the past been particularly conducive to grassroots mineral exploration. Or again, mineral royalty rates: in Russia they tend to be high by international standards.

There have been uncertainties, too, about possible restrictions on foreign investment in “strategic” natural resource properties, particularly if those restrictions were to be applied retrospectively to new mineral discoveries. Russia is of course far from unique in contemplating restrictions of this type and the important thing from the perspective of potential investors is to eliminate any ambiguity over what actually constitutes a “strategic” natural resource property.

In light of these potential difficulties, Albanese says Rio Tinto was encouraged by comments made in November last year by President Putin, who talked about new financial incentives for mineral exploration and possible changes in the subsoil licensing regime to make it more flexible and responsive to investors’ needs. “What’s more,” Albanese adds, “the government has responded sympathetically to representations we and other foreign investors in the Russian natural resources industry have made on the new subsoil bill.”

The task of translating into action the two parent companies’ bold plans to open up new minerals provinces in Russia falls to RioNor Exploration. This newly formed joint venture company is owned 49 per cent by Rio Tinto and 51 per cent by Norilsk Nickel.

Although a minority holding may perhaps not be the norm for Rio Tinto, the company has shown it is prepared to take a such a position in exploration or mining projects when circumstances warrant it – hence its 40 per cent holding in the expansion of the Grasberg copper joint venture in Indonesia and its 30 per cent interest in the Escondida copper mine in Chile, both of which are world class deposits.