Chris Griffith to chart Gold Fields’ future
International miner Gold Fields has appointed Chris Griffith, former CEO of Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), as its new CEO, giving an industry veteran freedom to chart the future of the company.
Griffith replaces Nick Holland, who retires at the end of March. Investors welcomed the news, driving the share price to a 5% higher close on Thursday.
In his leadership roles during his 30 years in the Anglo American stable, Griffith was always in leadership positions at companies that were subsidiaries of the London-based conglomerate, essentially having to answer to the dominant shareholder, which had a muscular say in determining strategy and spending priorities.
Gold Fields has mines in SA, Ghana, Australia and Peru and it is developing a gold mine in Chile, giving Griffith control of an international company after decades of heading mining operations in SA.
A mining engineer by training, he headed Anglo’s platinum joint ventures and then served as CEO of Kumba Iron Ore and Amplats, both companies with assets in SA but also with international marketing arms and offshore investors.
“One of the things that attracted me to the Gold Fields role is that it is a global company and it will bring something different to the experience I have in the portfolios of businesses I have run,” Griffith said during a call with analysts and the media on Thursday.
“I don’t think it’s correct to say the only thing I’ve done is be stuck in SA for the past 30 years or so. I was on the executive of Anglo American for 12 years or so and by the international nature of their business and the role I played in the executive, it contributed to a greater and more global perspective than just running businesses in SA.”
UNEXPECTED DEPARTURE
He unexpectedly quit in February 2020 after seven years at the head of the world’s secondlargest source of platinum group metals (PGMs), with speculation around his departure linked to his inability to secure the top job at Anglo.
Griffith was largely credited with steering an overhaul of the Amplats business, removing deep-level, labour-intensive mines from the company and driving hard on shallow, mechanised, low-cost mines, setting up Amplats to benefit from a surge in PGM prices. One of his main legacies at Amplats was creating safe mines.
The glaring outlier in the Gold Fields portfolio is the deep-level South Deep mine, which has missed many production targets and cost more than R32bn in purchase and development capital since 2006.
Griffith said there were no immediate plans to sell the 3kmdeep South Deep mine. He had hoped it would still be in the portfolio by the time he took up the CEO position to bring his decades of mining experience to complement what Martin Preece was doing in managing the complex, mechanised mine.
The board gave Griffith the mandate to search for growth, not limiting it to gold opportunities as long as the acquisitions or projects are value accretive.
Griffith will head a portfolio of mines that is ticking along nicely but with challenges. The last remaining SA mine in Gold Fields, South Deep, needs special care, and the new $860m Solares Norte project in Chile needs to deliver on time and on budget.
Gold Fields has nine mines set to deliver up to 2.5-million ounces of gold a year for a decade. With a market capitalisation of R127bn, the company is smaller than Amplats’ market cap of R428bn and has about half the number of mines.
Holland retires after 13 years as CEO and will leave six months ahead of his planned departure to make way for Griffith, a coup for the Gold Fields board. Asked about his future, Holland, 63, said: “I have no specific plans post end-March. But joining another major gold company so soon after leaving Gold Fields would be inappropriate.”
Gold Fields chair Cheryl Carolus said: “We are delighted that an experienced executive of Chris’s calibre will join Gold Fields. He has deep-rooted operational mining experience and an impressive track record of delivering safe operational performance and leading effective change.”
Under Holland’s leadership, Gold Fields unbundled its three large underground mines in 2013 to create what is now Sibanye-Stillwater, which has overtaken Amplats as the world’s leading source of PGMs.
Gold Fields moved to 90% of gold production outside SA, where it retains its primary listing, from two-thirds of output in 2008.
“Above all, Nick prioritised safety and wellness at all our operations, and during his tenure Gold Fields has seen a marked improvement in its safety record,” Carolus said.