Rio Tinto chairmanship

Rio Tinto PLC
08 April 2003

                             Rio Tinto chairmanship



Sir Robert Wilson, chairman of Rio Tinto, will retire from the boards of Rio
Tinto at the end of October this year, two months after reaching his normal
retirement age of 60.  Sir Robert joined the board of Rio Tinto plc in 1987 and
was chief executive from 1991 until his appointment as chairman in 1997. He
remained as chief executive following the 1995 dual listed companies merger of
Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited and also became chairman of Rio Tinto
Limited in 1999.



The boards have appointed Mr Paul Skinner to succeed Sir Robert as chairman. Mr
Skinner joined the Rio Tinto boards as a non executive director in 2001. He will
retire from his current positions as a Managing Director of The 'Shell'
Transport and Trading Company, plc and Group Managing Director of the Royal
Dutch/Shell Group in September 2003.



Mr Leigh Clifford, Rio Tinto's chief executive, will assume Sir Robert's
executive responsibilities when he retires.





For further information, please contact:


LONDON                                             AUSTRALIA
Media Relations                                    Media Relations

Lisa Cullimore                                     Ian Head

+ 44 (0) 20 7753 2305                              [phone]
Investor Relations                                 Investor Relations

Peter Cunningham                                   Dave Skinner

+ 44 (0) 20 7753 2401                              [phone]

Richard Brimelow                                   Daphne Morros

+ 44 (0) 20 7753 2326                               [phone]



Website: www.riotinto.com






NOTE TO EDITORS:





Sir Robert Wilson joined Rio Tinto in 1970. He held several planning and
management roles before being appointed managing director of the Group's
European zinc and lead smelting subsidiary in 1979. He returned to the London
head office in 1982 and played a key role in refocusing the Group's strategy on
mining activities, culminating in his appointment as planning and development
director in 1987. As such, he led Rio Tinto's purchase of BP Minerals in 1989
and then became Rio Tinto's director responsible for mining and metals
businesses prior to his appointments as chief executive and then chairman of Rio
Tinto.



More recently, Sir Robert has also played a leadership role within the mining
and metals industry in establishing the Global Mining Initiative in 1998. The
GMI set out to re-define the sector's role in relation to sustainable
development. Kofi Anan, UN Secretary General, described it as having 'mobilised
an unprecedented coalition for change' at its concluding conference in 2002.
Another outcome of the GMI was a new global leadership body for the industry,
the International Council on Mining and Metals, which Sir Robert also chairs.



Paul Skinner has worked for The Royal Dutch/Shell Group of companies since 1966
after joining as a student in 1963. Having initially worked in various sales and
marketing positions in Shell's chemicals businesses, including assignments in
Greece and Nigeria, he first moved to the oil business in 1979 with
responsibility for crude oil acquisitions in the Middle East and Africa. From
1981 he held a succession of chief executive appointments in Shell's UK, New
Zealand and then Norwegian interests; in the latter case, his prime focus was on
exploration and production. Mr Skinner became president of Shell International
Trading Company in 1991 and subsequently of the Group's merged oil trading and
shipping businesses. In 1996, he was appointed Director of Strategy and Business
Services, Oil Products, and President of Shell Oil Products Europe in 1998. Mr
Skinner became CEO of the global Oil Products business in January 1999 and a
Group Managing Director in 2000.



Mr Skinner has also been president of The Chamber of Shipping of the United
Kingdom in 1997/98 and is a member of the board of INSEAD, the European/Asian
business school, as well as a non executive director of Rio Tinto. In May 2003,
Mr Skinner will become chairman of the Rio Tinto boards' Committee on social and
environmental accountability.



Leigh Clifford joined the Rio Tinto Group in 1970 after completing a bachelor's
degree with honours in engineering and a master's degree in engineering science
at Melbourne University. He held various roles in the coal and metalliferous
operations of the Group before being seconded to Rio Tinto in London in 1994 as
mining director. In 1996 he was appointed managing director of Rio Tinto
Limited, based in Melbourne. He returned to London in 1999 and was chief
executive of Rio Tinto's global Energy group prior to his appointment as chief
executive of Rio Tinto in April 2000.



Mr Clifford will assume Sir Robert's current Finance, Planning and Development,
External Affairs and Human Resources roles on Sir Robert's retirement.




                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange       OAUWAKROURSRRR