Turner succeeds Albino as Rio Algom chairman

George Albino is no longer the chairman and chief executive officer of Toronto-based Rio Algom Ltd. After 23 years with the company, Canada’s second highest paid chief executive was replaced as chairman by Ross Turner.

A 57-year-old Winnipeg native and former Rio Algom director, Turner will commute from his home in San Francisco during his first months as chairman. Turner was a director and chairman of Vancouver-based Genstar Corp. before the conglomerate was acquired by Imasco in 1986.

“The board has not appointed a new chief executive officer but that will be considered in due course,” said Rio Algom spokesman Ken Culver.

While Culver refused to speculate on Albino’s departure, he said the decision was made at an Oct 30 board meeting and the new appointment is effective immediately. “It was strictly a decision involving the board and Mr Albino. The reasons have not been made public,” he said.

Albino’s departure follows Rio Algom’s 1987 nine-month consolidated net earnings results which were down $16 million from last year.

The company said unaudited consolidated net earnings were $53.3 million or $1.20 per share for the nine months ended Sept 30, 1987. That compares with $69.3 million or $1.57 per during during the same period in 1986.

Albino attributed the drop in earnings to a strike at Rio Algom’s Elliot Lake uranium operations and to losses posted by Potash Company of America Inc.

A mining and manufacturing conglomerate, Rio Algom’s assets include an 87.8% interest in Potash of America. Since Rio Algom acquired the company in January, 1986, Potash Co. reported a 1986 operating loss of $900,000.

A Rio Algom 1986 annual report says that operating loss, which cut the company’s 1987 first quarter profits by 33%, was due mainly to low potash prices caused by excess world production and weak demand for the fertilizer.

A decision to default on a $155- million limited non-recourse loan to build its East Kemptville tin mine in Nova Scotia, cut Rio Algom’s 1986 profits by 20%. Following a collapse in world tin prices, the decision to write off the East Kemptville tin project during the 1986 fourth quarter, resulted in an extraordinary charge of $19.7 million.

Without this writeoff, 1986 consolidated profits would have been $89.9 million.

Rio Algom also owns 68% of Lornex Mining Corp., a British Columbia company with interests in a copper-molybdenum mine.

According to an April survey of 30 companies by the Financial Times of Canada, Albino earned $1,303,553 in 1986 ranking him as the second-highest paid chief executive in Canada.

A former U.S. Marine Corps. captain, Albino was a well known figure in the resource industry. According to John Runnalls, a professor of energy studies at the University of Toronto, Albino was a positive force in the fight to maintain nuclear expertise at Canadian universities.

Having joined Rio Algom in 1964 as manager of planning, Albino was named chairman, president and chief executive officer in April, 1981.

“He made a lot of important decisions which paid off for Rio Algom,” said Runnalls. “But perhaps the Potash and tin mine problems added up to go against him.”