It will be a while before Marius Kloppers recovers from the failure of his Rio Tinto bid. It has dominated his tenure as chief executive of BHP Billiton, having been launched just five weeks after he took the job last year.

Until very recently Mr Kloppers still thought a deal could be done. It was unclear on Tuesday who made the final decision to drop the bid and whether the move was forced upon Mr Kloppers by non-executive directors and disgruntled shareholders. But in the near term his position appears to be safe, even if his authority has been weakened.