Mining chief sacked after $6m ‘irregular’ payment

THE chief executive of a FTSE 100 mining company has been fired over claims he greenlit an “irregular” payment in breach of the company’s policies.

Endeavour Mining, the largest gold producer in West Africa, told investors after markets shut yesterday it had terminated the employment of Sébastien de Montessus for “serious misconduct” after uncovering an “irregular payment instruction” of $5.9m (£4.7m).

Endeavour said the payment was discovered “in the course of a review of acquisitions and disposals”.

Last night Mr de Montessus told The Telegraph: “In 2021 I instructed a creditor of Endeavour to offset an amount owed to the company to pay for essential security equipment to protect our partners and employees in a conflict zone.

“The decision had no additional cost to the company and did not benefit me personally in any way. I omitted to inform the board that I had arranged for this offset, which I have freely accepted was a lapse in judgement.

“This week I was given 48 hours’ notice of the concerns and no proper opportunity to answer them.”

Separately, the board said it was considering what actions to take, if any, after being handed the findings of a report into Mr de Montessus’s “personal conduct with colleagues”. An external review was triggered after a complaint to the company’s confidential whistleblowing hotline.

Mr de Montessus denies any misconduct.

The French-born businessman has run Endeavour Mining since 2016, during which time he has earned tens of millions of pounds.

He received £18.8m in 2021 as a reward for successfully shifting the company’s primary listing to the London Stock Exchange from Canada in June that year. His salary dropped to £8.9m in 2022 after an investor revolt and as the company fell to a loss.

Endeavour Mining, which was founded in 1988, runs mines in Burkina Faso, Côte d’ivoire and Senegal. It is a member of the FTSE 100.

Mr de Montessus’s unexpected sacking follows a series of recent, high-profile chief executive scandals in the US and UK. BP chief Bernard Looney was ousted in September 2023 after he failed to disclose details of his relationships with colleagues. In 2019, Mcdonald’s boss Steve Easterbrook was dismissed over relationships with a colleague. In both cases, their former employers opted to claw back pay.

The board of Endeavour is understood to be planning to discuss a potential clawback of Mr de Montessus’s pay and has promised to announce “full details” in its annual report.