Mining giant BHP Billiton has announced that its chief executive Marius Kloppers will retire in May.
But Rio argued that Mr Kloppers's offer undervalued its assets in the Pilbara in particular.
What else Mr Kloppers can add to the pot at this late stage is hard to see.
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Mr Kloppers was careful to deny that one aim of the merger was to gain additional pricing power.
As the credit crunch set in, that burden began to look unbearable both to Rio and to Mr Kloppers.
So Mr Kloppers eventually stopped digging and dropped the bid, at considerable cost to BHP and to his own reputation.
But the steely Mr Kloppers, his reputation restored, looks likely to press on as persistently as the trains rumbling across the Pilbara.
He said it was a privilege to be asked to lead the company and he looked forward to building on Mr Kloppers' legacy.
Crucially, Mr Kloppers gets to extract much of the value he saw in his planned merger, but without the risk of increased debt.
Mr Kloppers spoke of BHP's woeful shortage of tyres for its huge trucks, big mechanical shovels, bearings and all manner of other equipment.
Having abandoned the mega-deal that has dominated his tenure so far, Mr Kloppers must now get back to the business of running his company.
Mr Kloppers said the writedown on the Fayetteville assets was also a reflection of BHP's decision to change course and shift drilling from dry gas to liquid-rich fields.
Mr Kloppers may also have underestimated the opposition of regulators.
Purves, the chairman of Environmental Business Australia, has tried to alert the important CEOs down under to the danger, but only Marcus Kloppers of BHP Billiton has responded positively.
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"As we finalised all the details of the project in the context of current market conditions, it became clear that the right decision was to continue studies to develop a less capital intensive option to replace the underground mine at Olympic Dam, " said BHP chief executive Marius Kloppers.
Of course, this is not baseball but one cannot ever take ego out of the equation when it comes to managing a company and it will not go unnoticed that if BHP is frustrated in its approach for Potash Corp. it will be the third corporate takeover failure to be chalked up by CEO Marius Kloppers since he assumed the role in 2007.
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