Chinalco will be allowed to appoint one director on completion of the deal and a second (independent of Chinalco) when its $US7.2 billion of convertible bonds are converted to equity. The Chinalco nominees will have to be approved by the board's nominations committee, making it unlikely that the chairman of Baosteel, for example, would be deemed acceptable as an independent nominee. Sources said the former chairman designate Jim Leng, chairman of the European steel maker Corus, was acceptable because Corus bought little iron ore from Rio compared with Chinese steelmakers such as Baosteel, which are big customers.