New Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh has pointed the finger of blame at his predecessor for the company’s almost $3 billion dollar loss announced yesterday.

Around $14 billion dollars worth of writedowns from the company’s aluminium assets and a coal project in Mozambique meant the miner suffered its first financial loss.

Former CEO Tom Albanese and the head of the Mozambique acquisition Doug Ritchie both left Rio last month because of the losses.

Mr Walsh said the board believed Mr Albanese and Mr Ritchie had ultimately responsibility for the poor decisions to buy the projects.

He said a post-acquisition review was underway to understand what happened with the Mozambique mine where the quality of coal was far below expected.