Sacked mining boss to take legal action over alleged £8.4m bung

A ROW has broken out at one of the world’s largest mining companies after it fired two top bosses during a major corruption investigation.

Rio Tinto sacked its energy and minerals chief executive Alan Davies and legal and regulatory group executive Debra Valentine amid a probe over an alleged £8.4m payment to a middleman.

The company said it had reviewed the findings of an ongoing internal investigation and found the pair had breached its conduct code.

But Davies hit back, accusing his bosses of giving him no chance to answer any allegations and warned he would take the ‘strongest possible’ legal action.

‘This treatment of me and my past and recent colleagues is totally at variance with the values and behaviours of the company to which I have devoted my professional life,’ he said.

The scandal engulfed Rio earlier this month when it said it had become aware of emails from 2011 that referred to a payment of £8.4m to a consultant advising on an iron ore project in Guinea.

It has since been alleged the company’s lawyers were aware of the correspondence more than a year earlier.

Davies was in charge of the project and was suspended immediately, while Valentine, who had already announced her decision to retire, stepped down.