Rio Tinto has resolved one high-profile problem only to confront two more.
As the mining company yesterday announced lower net debt, better cash flows from recovering commodity prices, and a restored dividend, the company appeared to have book-ended a phase of financial trauma that may one day become a business school case study.
The problems now confronting it are Chinese relations and iron ore expansion. Neither of these issues threaten the company as much as its finances did in the months before February 2009. But they require diplomatic skills to equal the financial finesse it demonstrated last year to the satisfaction of shareholders.