By Michael Pascoe
At first glance, it appeared wonderful symbolism for the international changing of the guard - just as Broken Hill itself looks like turning Chinese through the effective takeover of Perilya, Rio Tinto appoints someone call Leng from Tata Steel as its new chairman.
But the latter is an illusion - the Rio chairmanship remains a job for a solid British chap with interest in sport and music. Jim Leng is deputy chairman of Tata thanks to being chairman of Corus when the Indian multinational took it over. Prior to that, a series of executive roles and directorships.
There is one easy line open about him though. The first 17 years of his working life were with John Waddington, the maker of playing cards and the Monopoly game. With that experience, maybe if Rio had him in place sooner…
Inevitably Paul Skinner's sudden "retirement" eight months ahead of his previously announced schedule will be seen as him taking some small responsibility for Rio holding out against BHP's advances and it's Alcan takeover.
For the billions lost by Rio shareholders and the mess the company is now in, Skinner will forgo a few hundred thousand pounds. And no doubt the other Rio chaps will ensure a generous departure present.
But most of the major Rio shareholders are also major BHP shareholders and thus it isn't quite as bad as it might seem. What they lost on the Rio roundabout, they've partly picked up on the BHP swing. Better to have one troubled and one healthy mining major in the portfolio than one very large troubled company.
Whatever the Rio chairman's background, the changing of the resources guard is on. Front and centre at Rio's fire sale are Chinese interests, just as Chinese finance is likely to be behind any new resources projects as the traditional Western financiers stay at home, fastening a tarp over the roof and battening any remaining hatches.
The Rio chairman may remain a solid Brit, but we are in the early days of seeing large swathes of the commodities industries change hands.
Just as Japanese trading houses emerged as significant shareholders in Queensland coal deposits, Chinese entities - mostly government-backed - are the ones with the money and interest now to buy resource assets.
Which is why the dive in metals prices is a very nice thing indeed from Beijing's point of view.
As a symbol, perhaps the fate of Rio's borate operation means more. Rio is the world's key producer of borate - one of those rather boring but none-the-less important industrial materials.
Rio's only expecting to get $US1 billion or so for it, but it's been widely reported that one of the frontrunners in the auction is a Chinese company.
The main opposition allegedly is a private equity firm - I know which of those two is likely to have the easiest access to capital.