Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese out over $14bn write-down Charles Gibson, mining head at Edison Investment Research, said: "Rio was, however, until today one of the more stable miners - investors may wonder what else is out there." Rio Tinto has become just the latest FTSE 100 resource giant to shuffle the decks. Rival Anglo American poached Anglo Gold Ashanti's Mark Cutifani after Cynthia Carroll's resignation was announced in October, while the sector's biggest miner, BHP Billiton, is still looking for a successor to Marius Kloppers. Rio Tinto said developing infrastructure around the coal assets, previously Riversdale Mining, had been more challenging that it anticipated, after it could not get government approvals to transport coal by barge along the Zambezi River. It has also had to cut its estimates of the coking coal it can recover. In addition, Rio Tinto had to unveil a further $10 to $11bn hit to the valuation of its aluminium assets, bought at the market peak. It has now written down $28bn of the $38bn paid for aluminium company Alcan in 2007, analysts estimated. The company blamed a further decline in market conditions last year, as well as high energy and raw material costs and strong currencies in some countries, for the division's latest pain. Rio Tinto said it would also report $500m of smaller asset write-downs, with the final figures revealed in its results next month. Mr Albanese said: "While I leave the business in good shape in many respects, I fully recognise that accountability for all aspects of the business rests with the CEO." Doug Ritchie, a 27-year company veteran who led Rio's acquisition of the written-down Mozambique coal assets when he was chief executive of its energy arm, also left. Rio said he and Mr Albanese will not receive any lump sum payments or bonuses on their departures. Mr Albanese does, however, have share options awarded over 2003 to 2009 which are worth £10.7m. Meanwhile, Mr Walsh will see his potential remuneration package rise by 15pc to Australian $7.8m. The shares dived more than 4pc in London after the morning's surprise announcement, but later recovered somewhat to close down 18½, or 0.5pc, at £34.39 ½p.