Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto has hired Daniel Worrall, a British oil executive with extensive experience in the developing world, to lead its mission in Mongolia.

The former ExxonMobil, Shell and Total executive will serve as chief executive and country director for Mongolia where the mining company’s most important growth asset – Oyu Tolgoi copper, gold and silver mine – lies. Through its 51-percent-owned Turquoise Hill Resources, Rio currently holds 66 percent stake in Oyu Tolgoi, one of the world’s largest known copper and gold deposits, located in the Gobi region of Mongolia.

The position had been vacant for almost a year since former Chief Executive and Country Director for Mongolia D.Munkhtushig stepped down.

Worrall has spent the past decade with Exxon, and between 2014 and 2017 was part of the oil giant’s government relations team in Papua New Guinea, overseeing the start of the massive PNG LNG gas project. Prior to that, he was responsible for government and stakeholder relations across Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan for Royal Dutch Shell and Total.

Along with the new appointment, Rio announced that Oyu Tolgoi LLC’s 2010-2019 in-country spending exceeded 10 billion USD with procurement from Mongolian companies accounting for 76 percent, taxes and social insurance premium accounting for 18 percent, and wages making up six percent of the spending.