Rio Tinto chief financial officer Chris Lynch will retire next year after more than four years in the role.
The mining giant on Monday announced that Mr Lynch, who joined the Rio board in 2011 and was appointed to the role of chief financial officer in April 2013, had informed the board that he intends to retire by the end of September 2018.
Rio said planning for a new chief financial officer had already begun with a replacement to be announced in due course.
Chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques thanked Mr Lynch who will remain with the company to ensure a smooth transition.
"Chris has made an outstanding contribution to the performance of Rio Tinto since he was appointed CFO in 2013 and I would like to personally thank him for his wise counsel," Mr Jacques said in a statement on Monday.
The announcement comes roughly a month after Rio Tinto offered shareholders a record interim dividend after its underlying half-year profit more than doubled on the back of stronger commodity prices.
The mining giant in August said it would deliver an interim dividend of $US1.10 a share, or about $US2 billion in total and up from 45 US cents the previous year, and launched an additional buyback of $US1 billion of its London-listed shares to be completed this year.
