Nirupa Bhatt Leaves Rio Tinto

This is surprising. Nirupa Bhatt, long-time head of Rio Tinto’s India office, is leaving her post, effective at the end of November. The announcement of her departure contains these lines:

I would like to emphasise at this point Rio Tinto Diamonds’ firm commitment to its association with the Indian diamond community and that the local office remains operational.  I shall announce the new Head of the Mumbai representative office in due course.

Still, it’s difficult not to speculate, with Polishedprices reporting that Argyle is to be sold (and the company not responding to any email queries for comment), that something is afoot here.

In other coming and going news, and this happened a while ago, Nancy Robey has left her post at GCAL.

UPDATE: Nirupa’s departure is called "a body blow to Rio."