Walsh accelerates Rio asset sales RIO Tinto's new chief executive Sam Walsh has hit the ground running with his clean-up and fix-up plans for the debt-heavy miner by putting the "for sale" sign out on parts of its $16 billion Queensland and NSW coal operations. The group's coal business, like the rest of the Australian industry, continues to suffer from lower prices, the revenue-sapping effects of the strong dollar and cost increases racked up during the now fading mining boom.