how vulnerable is rio tinto?, page-31

I do agree with you there that management leaves a bit to be desired (bring back Clifford, Davis, etc!) - I take solace in the fact that the Pilbara assets have a mine life in excess of 30 years, while current executive management won't be around in 5 :)

I'd also like higher divs. However I've noticed many very large global multinationals (Exxon, Google, Apple, Coca Cola, etc) don't like paying high divs - some don't even pay a dividend at all - so perhaps that's just how large global corporates work. In the end though, as long as they're earning a good return on shareholders funds I'm not too overly concerned with a low div.