Rio Tinto is one of the largest materials and mining companies in the world. The downturn in the mining industry has lent a further level of urgency to the team’s work, but has not been enough to prevent it from achieving notable accomplishments over the past year.

The company’s African operations are extensive, and a number of its legal personnel are based there, including chief counsel for Southern Africa Hermien Uys, who cooperates closely with the broader corporate legal function based in London. In terms of African operations, Rio Tinto’s legal teams have been involved in both M&A transactions and the refinancing of Richards Bay Minerals, a leading mining company that is majority-owned by Rio Tinto.

On this transaction, a source from an external legal firm involved praised the legal team’s ‘extensive knowledge of the sector and ability to work with complex documentation’. The legal team’s achievements are all the more impressive given the fact that they have successfully maintained cohesion despite working across different time zones, with members of the team operating in diverse geographical regions.