Chris Campbell, the man responsible for overseeing BHP Billiton's vast Western Australia iron ore joint venture with Rio Tinto, has been appointed president of its iron ore business.

He will be swapping roles with Ian Ashby who will become chief executive of the controversial joint venture.

The tie-up is still awaiting regulatory clearance from the European Union and elsewhere so Campbell will assume his new role “progressively over the coming months” as Ashby's workload increases.

Miners have been in tense talks with China, the world's largest importer of Australian iron ore, which fears the Rio-BHP tie up will give the venture too much power in setting prices for one of the most vital raw materials behind the country's breakneck economic development.

Analysts see thechanges at Billiton as positioning to deal with such conflicts. It follows the appointment of Rio's mandarin-speaking Ian Bauert as chairman of the joint venture.

The tie-up with Rio will produce most of Billiton's iron ore — it expects to mine more than 350 million tonnes per year.

Campbell will be responsible for marketing Billiton's share of the deal as well as being in charge of the company's iron ore operations and the proposed joint venture with Arcelor-Mittal.