Rio Tinto sacks two directors over Guinea payment controversy

Energy and minerals chief executive Alan Davies and legal and regulatory affairs group executive Debra Valentine were said to have "failed to maintain the standards expected of them under our global code of conduct".

The Anglo-Australian mining giant said the board's decision "does not pre-judge the course of any external inquiries into this matter", having last week referred the matter to law enforcement authorities in the UK, the US and Australia.

Davies will be replaced by ex JP Morgan investment banker-turned mining executive Bold Baatar, who joined Rio Tinto in 2013 as copper international operations president and has recently been managing director of marine and vice president or iron ore sales and marketing.

Rio's lawyers found internal emails from 2011 about the $10.5m payment to a consultant that, according to the Financial Times, which has seen the emails, showed Davies, the executive in charge of Simandou, discussing with then-CEO Tom Albanese and Sam Walsh, then head of iron ore, paying a $10.5m fee to François Polge de Combret, a former top French banker and classmate of Guinea’s president.