For most of the past decade, mining executives aimed for higher, faster, stronger – a wave of merger and acquisitions, mega-projects and rapid production growth.
Marius Kloppers, the departing chief executive of BHP Billiton, was an archetype of the era. Just a month after the South African chemical engineer formally took the helm of the world’s largest mining group by market capitalisation in October 2007, he launched a hostile $150bn takeover bid for rival Rio Tinto in an attempt to create the “world’s premier diversified natural resources company”.
Now, the new breed of chief executives arriving at the helm of the four London-listed groups that dominate the mining industry are likely to have more modest ambitions.
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