Rio Tinto looks for CIO to lead iron ore tech

Mining behemoth Rio Tinto is on the hunt for a CIO to take over tech responsibility for its iron ore business, headquartered in Perth.

The Western Australia and Canada-based iron ore business is the Rio Tinto group’s biggest earner, with around 11,000 staff on the books and revenue of nearly US$26 billion (A$32 billion) in 2013. It is currently the second largest seaborne iron ore supplier in the world and has set its sights on topping the market.

According to a job ad, its growth prospects are intimately tied with the technological success of the business, including “introducing next generation technologies to deliver greater efficiency, lower production cost and improved [health safety and environment] performance”.

The iron ore business is currently rolling out its ‘Mine of the Future’ program of works, which features a fleet of autonomous trucks and trains integrated with real time data tracking thats keeps tabs on asset maintenance, fuel efficiency and transport cycle times.

Rio Tinto declined to comment on whether or not its last iron ore CIO, Rohan Davidson, had left the company or moved internally.

Davidson had been in the role for nearly seven years, and spent his career working between Rio Tinto and mining rival BHP Billiton.

The new CIO will answer into Rio Tinto Iron Ore CFO Paul Shannon. Rio Tinto is looking for candidates with tertiary qualifications in computer science, engineering or business administration, ideally with a background in the resources industry.