Sibanye restructures at top
JEAN Nel‚ the former chief executive of Aquarius Platinum‚ will head Sibanye Gold’s platinum division, which plans to consolidate mines around Rustenburg‚ leapfrogging Sibanye into the top ranks of platinum producers.
In a restructuring of the Sibanye company into three divisions as it becomes a multi-commodity business‚ the company has appointed three experienced heads of each division supported by senior teams with long mining experience.
The platinum division‚ with Nel as CEO‚ will incorporate the Aquarius assets‚ Anglo American Platinum’s Rustenburg mines and potentially a third set of assets in the region‚ which some analysts speculate could belong to either Impala Platinum or Lonmin.
Nel will be joined by Bheki Khumalo‚ who will be in charge of human capital at the platinum division‚ and Peter Turner‚ who will head technical services at the division‚ moving away from the gold-focused technical work he did at Sibanye.
Waye Robinson will be CEO of the gold and uranium division‚ joined by Adam Mutshinya as head of human capital and Pieter Henning in charge of the division’s finances. William Osae will take over technical services in the division.
Former head of Anglo American Coal and CEO of a number of coal companies‚ John Wallington‚ is CEO of Sibanye’s energy and coal division.
Neal Froneman‚ CEO of Sibanye‚ will head the group executive.
“The Sibanye Group Executive assembles an experienced array of relevant mining industry experience‚ including strong technical capacity to deliver the leadership required for Sibanye to continue on its strategic path‚ and ensure delivery of superior value to all stakeholders‚” he said.
Sibanye has made a cash and share bid of at least R4.5-billion for the Rustenburg mines put up for sale by Anglo American Platinum‚ which is focusing on shallow‚ mechanised assets‚ and the deal needs the approval of the Department of Mineral Resources to transfer mining rights to Sibanye‚ a process that has historically taken a year or more for most companies.
Froneman told Business Day earlier this year that he wanted to make a third acquisition around Rustenburg to consolidate the area into a single operating entity. The two logical companies Sibanye would be speaking to are Impala Platinum and Lonmin‚ both of which have mines in the area‚ analysts said.
The platinum assets Sibanye is buying will produce a concentrate to be sold to Amplats. Froneman has said Sibanye would like a mine-to-market type operation that would include facilities to smelt and refine the concentrate it produces. Aquarius is a partner with Implats at the Mimosa joint venture in Zimbabwe.
The Rustenburg mines produce about 500 000oz of platinum a year and about 800 000oz of four platinum group metals (PGMs)‚ which as a standalone unit will be the fifth-biggest platinum miner in the world.
Aquarius cost cuts and production increases‚ reported its highest first-half production since 2007 at the Kroondal mine it shared with Amplats. It produced an attributable 115 839oz of PGMs in the six months to end-December.
Aquarius told shareholders they would receive R2.97 per share from the Sibanye purchase. — BDlive