Rio Tinto names outgoing Canadian ambassador to China as chairman

* Dominic Barton to start as chairman on May 5, join board in April

* Was managing director of McKinsey for 9 years

Dec 20 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto on Monday tapped Canada's outgoing ambassador to China as its chairman, hoping the veteran consultant's links to its biggest market will help the global miner as it looks to move on from the scandal over its destruction of ancient rock shelters in Australia.

Dominic Barton will take over as chairman of Rio from Simon Thompson, who decided to step down https://www.reuters.com/business/rio-tinto-chairman-becomes-latest-high-profile-departure-after-caves-blast-2021-03-02 to take responsibility for the destruction of the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelters in Western Australia in May 2020.

The Anglo-Australian company faced public and investor uproar following the cave blasts, which led to the resignations https://www.reuters.com/article/rio-tinto-ceo-int-idUSKBN2613OD of its then-chief executive and two other senior executives.

The Ugandan-born Barton, 59, will join Rio's board on April 4 before becoming chairman on May 5, the company said. Jakob Stausholm has been CEO for almost a year.

Barton, who spent nine years leading McKinsey & Co and was previously its Asia chairman based out of Shanghai, is leaving https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-china-idCAKBN2IL15Y his two-year assignment as Canada's ambassador to China where he helped secure the release of two detained Canadian citizens amid icy relations between Ottawa and Beijing.

China accounts for more than half of Rio's revenue, according to the company's latest annual report, largely due to the appetite in the world's second-largest economy for iron ore, a steelmaking ingredient essential to the country's infrastructure push.

That demand helped lift iron ore prices this year, which in turn saw Rio post record profits https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/rio-tinto-first-half-earnings-more-than-doubles-2021-07-28 in the first half, although prices have since cooled.

Barton is set to leave his role as ambassador at the end of the year and as Rio chairman will have to contend with rising tensions between Canberra and Beijing, which has slapped tariffs on Australian wine and barley, as well as severely limiting imports of coal.

Also on his plate will be helping Rio push through several growth projects, including the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project in Mongolia and the $2.4 billion Jadar lithium mine in Serbia.

He served as managing director of McKinsey when its work in South Africa https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mckinsey-safrica-idUSKBN1CL316 with utility firm Eskom drew the management consultancy into political scandal.

 (Reporting by Nikhil Kurian Nainan in Bengaluru; Editing by Paul Simao and Peter Cooney)