Having breakfast beside the swan river......

One of the greatest experiences I would have gone through while in Perth, is definetely having my breakfast with the swan river on the background. 1 week end alone and the other with Moctar, a colleague from Simandou, who is on secondement as me but fifo (he goes on site for one week and come back to Perth the oder...) Moctar and I enjoy going to cafes beside the Atlantic Ocean in Guinea. So we share our pleasure together here in Perth, few miles away from the Indian Ocean,  and it is a time for us to discuss over challenges our country face at the moment, our respective secondement experiences and also, share some vision over were we want to be in the coming years. Both of us left family behind, with pregnant wifes....

At times, we meet other people, get introduced to each other, exchange few words... Most of them are amazed to know that we are coming from far away to enjoy such a wonderful experience (personnal and prefessional) thanks to Rio Tinto.

I take this opportunity to humbly pay a tribute to this company that has sutainably and comstructively shaped my life since I joined it in Mid-april 2008. Rio Tinto is a company worth to work for... A company that gives you back what you offers it in terms of efforts.... A company that rewards its committed employees not only through good pay, but through good corporate culture, policies etc. We know as employees of Rio Tinto, that the company pledges Duty of Care and it first applies it towards us.

I cannot tell the extent to which working for Rio has provided me with the opportunity to develop both on the personnal and professional side.

In 2009, i discovered the journey of being a young leader and enjoyed 2 months later, a Frontline Leadership Program semminar in South Africa, precisely In our sand mining operation of Richards Bay Minerals. After the three sessions which enabled me to fly to South Africa three times, I discovered what really make this company a great one, through values its promote. This type of training is crucial to give insight to leaders over what leading in a modern corporate( whose first objective is ensuring people go back home safe)?is all about.

I am an economist in training. I am always forcing myself to look at things one or two steps behind. My trip to Richards Bay enabled me to see how the sustainable development Policy of Rio Tinto is more than nice words that you read on corporate websites. Actually, I have been able to notice that our know how in mined area rehabilitation is a reality as I was shown areas that looks like if nothing happened there! The vegetal cover has been amazingly restored. Trees are back to normal.....

I felt secured to know that Rio Tinto environmental standards are higest enough to really ensure that mining and environment protection can be two convergent goals if companies are responsible enough....  This is part of the Duty of Care spirit.

Respect, Integrity, teamwork, Accountabilty are the 4 core values of Rio Tinto and I can assure you, having spent 5 years working in there, that they are living as 4 pillars that supports the latter in its every sense of the term sector leadership standing.

In these times of challenges in the broader mining sector, I believe that these values, more that ever, will continue to be the strong pillars above which our company will be stronger, cost-competitive and high value producer for its key stakeholders.

Merci a Rio Tinto!