Incoming Rio Tinto Chief Executive, Sam Walsh, has made some candid admissions in the posting of the results of the year ended in December, saying the company will have to reprioritise with delivering greater value for its shareholders, setting out his vision for the company after the departure of his predecessor Tom Albanese.

"Under my leadership, Rio Tinto will have an unrelenting focus on pursuing greater value for shareholders. To do this we need to run the business as owners not managers and my immediate priority is to build more focus, discipline and accountability throughout the organisation," Mr Walsh said.

Mr Walsh said the company will now focus on 'reinforcing capital discipline' to achieve " attractive returns that are well above our cost of capital," in a bid to woo back shaken investors after the company's ill-fated expansion in Mozambique.

The write-downs from the company's expansion projects saw Rio post a net loss of $3.0 billion, which will see the company escape the clutches of the recently introduced mining tax.