In the midst of the BHP and Rio Tinto takeover struggle, the world's largest miner announced today that Andrew Mackenzie from Rio Tinto has been appointed as group executive and CEO of the non-ferrous unit, replacing Marius Kloppers who became CEO of BHP last month.
As head of BHP's most profitable unit Mr Mackenzie will be responsible for the production of copper, aluminum, stainless steel materials and diamonds
Mr Mackenzie will also be a member of the BHP management committee.
"Andrew has extensive experience in our sector and will be a valuable addition to our extensive team," said CEO Kloppers.
"I look forward to working with him as we strive to meet the growing demand for our commodities."
Mr Mackenzie was previously working at Rio Tinto as CEO of Diamonds and Industrial Minerals.
"His employment contract with Rio Tinto contains obligations in relation to a period of notice that he will observe,'' BHP said in the statement.
BHP said that no start date has yet been fixed.
The appointment of Mr Mackenzie is an interesting twist to the BHP and Rio story that has been in the news recently.
BHP has offered $140 billion in stocks to buy Rio Tinto, the world's third-largest mining company, an approach that Rio has so far rejected.
Nevertheless, today Mr Kloppers said that the offer was very compelling but a lot of work still remained to be done.
Shares in BHP fell by 3.1% to $40.30.
