ASSESSMENT TASK 1: DESCRIPTION
Your assignment is to: Appraise the strategic direction Rio Tinto is taking with their ‘Mine of the Future’ project within a framework of the theories and concepts studied in LB5230 Managing Strategic Resources and Operations (ch’s 1 to 5 in particular from the text book, combined with evidence and statistics from the McKinsey Global Institute paper on ‘Disruptive Technologies’). Additional resources can be accessed from the material in this study guide and business related sites in general.
Figure 1.1 positions Rio Tinto Iron Ore ‘mine of the future’ project within the Iron Ore business unit in Western Australia (Rio Tinto 2013):

Figure 1.1: Rio Tinto Mine of the Future
Rio Tinto is a leading international mining group headquartered in the UK, combining Rio Tinto plc, a London and New York Stock Exchange listed company, and Rio Tinto Limited, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Rio Tinto's business is finding, mining, and processing mineral resources. Major products are aluminium, copper, diamonds, thermal and metallurgical coal, uranium, gold, industrial minerals (borax, titanium dioxide and salt) and iron ore. Activities span the world and are strongly represented in Australia and North America with significant businesses in Asia, Europe, Africa and South America (Rio Tinto 2013).
Rio Tinto Pilbara operations - including a world-class, integrated network of 15 iron ore mines, three port facilities, a 1,500 kilometre rail network and related infrastructure - are designed to respond rapidly to changes in demand, supported by our Operations Centre in Perth. We're expanding our operations in the Pilbara to epic proportions while introducing next generation technologies to deliver greater efficiency, lower production costs and improve health, safety and environmental performance. We employ more than 12,500 people in our Western Australian iron ore business alone. Bartholomeusz (AFR, Feb 13th 2015) noted that the biggest surprise in yesterday’s “beyond expectations” Rio Tinto result was:
the extent to which, in the face of plunging commodity prices, Sam Walsh and Chris Lynch were able to reduce the group’s net debt levels. In fact they wiped $US5.4 billion off the $US18.1bn of net debt the group was carrying a year earlier, to $US12.5bn. Where gearing was 25 per cent at December 2013 it is now 19 per cent, below the 20 per cent to 30 per cent range Lynch has previously targeted.
A suggested pro-forma for this strategic operations based first assignment would be:
I. Who is Rio Tinto?
? Provide a snapshot of Rio Tinto the company globally, and then focus on the Iron Ore business unit in Western Australia
II. Recent history and evolution of the “Mine of the Future” concept
? Where did the concept originate and what is its strategic intent?
III. Status of the components that currently make up the “Mine of the Future” Iron Ore project
? Perth control centre
? Mine site based
? Trucks
? Loaders
? Process and wash plants
? Port based
? Trains
? Ship loaders
? Other?
IV. Sustainable mining and logistics within Rio Tinto
? Identify and elaborate on sustainability aspects of Rio Tinto iron ore operations, supply chain and global logistics footprint
V. Where is the intersection of strategy, operations, technology and mining of our mineral natural resources heading over the coming decade?
? Identify future trends around managing strategic resources and operations in:
? Australia
? Globally
ASSESSMENT TASK 1: marking rubric on page 19