January 1997 was the last CRA NYSF as CRA Limited and RTZ Plc were later in the year merged to form Rio Tinto and this was to be the future prefix. However, early in 1998, almost concurrently with the appointment of John Sandeman as Chairman of Council, Rio Tinto announced that January 1999 was to be its last year of full sponsorship (at $200,000) and that the sponsorship would be halved for January 2000 and drop to $25,000 thereafter. Rio Tinto very generously made $25,000 available to assist with a sponsorship search and provided two weekends of professional seminars in which Council members and past students were given advice into how to find sponsors. Council set an initial target of $400,000 for January 2001 and saw this as made up of 8 University sponsors and 8 industry sponsors each at $25,000 pa. The concept of university sponsors was only possible after the emphasis that had been placed on universities at both Orientation and University Seminars in the past few years.