Harmony Gold anoints Beyers Nel as CEO, with a nuance
HARMONY Gold on Thursday said Beyers Nel would take over as CEO from 2025 continuing the group’s tradition of promoting its chief operating officers to the top job.Nel takes over from Peter Steenkamp who rejoined Harmony in 2016 as CEO after previously running its mines.However, the appointment comes with a new development in that Floyd Masemula, head of the group’s South African mines, will be the group’s deputy CEO.This is ” due to the importance and the focus that is required for the South African mines,” said Harmony Gold with a nod towards its internationalisation.Harmony is expected to unveil an updated feasibility study on its Eva Copper mine in Australia early next year at the latest whilst it is also hoping there’s progress in permitting of Wafi-Golpu, a large gold/copper project in Papua New Guinea.Masemula was previously head of mining at Sibanye-Stillwater’s platinum division. Prior to that he was GM at Harmony’s Kusasalethu, Doornkop and Kalgold operations and also worked at AngloGold Ashanti. “His primary responsibility will be to continue his current leadership of the South African operations,” said Harmony of Masemula.Both appointments are effective January 1. The announcements have come late in the day, however, given Steenkamp gave notice of his decision to retire in March.“Beyers and Floyd, together with the world-class management team at Harmony, will provide operational leadership during the next exciting growth phase of the company,” said Patrice Motsepe, executive chairman of Harmony.Nel takes over at a company riding the crest of a wave.On Monday (November 11), it announced first quarter operating free cash flow of R5.18bn, a 60% improvement year-on-year. While the gold price was heavily influential – Harmony registered a 21% increase in the average gold price received – it wasn’t the only factor in the strong numbers.The company benefited from strong grades at its high quality Moab Khotsong and Mponeng mines, both acquired from AngloGold Ashanti by Steenkamp and which perhaps represents his greatest contribution to the group.An “exceptional” average grade in the quarter of 10.70 grams per ton was recorded from Mponeng in the quarter and contributed towards a 28% increase in production. Total production from Harmony was 422,172 oz, largely flat on the fourth quarter but which saw an important contribution from its “optimised” (older) shafts.Harmony said that it would continue to allocate capital to the optimised mine portfolio as they collectively contributed 37% of overall production in the fourth quarter. This is where Masemula comes in next year.The post Harmony Gold anoints Beyers Nel as CEO, with a nuance appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com
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