Sibanye’s platinum boss quits after just seven months
SIBANYE Gold, which has lately upped its aggressive acquisition of platinum assets, yesterday announced the sudden resignation of its platinum division’s chief executive, Jean Nel, after just seven months into the position.
The company also announced that it had officially taken the reigns of Anglo American Platinum’s (Amplats’) Rustenburg operations. Nel, Aquarius Platinum’s exchief executive is expected to be replaced by Robert van Niekerk.
Van Niekerk is Sibanye’s previous executive vicepresident for organisational effectiveness and he has served in senior roles in Amplats’ Rustenburg operations.
Sibanye spokesman James Wellsted said yesterday that Nel had neither given specific reasons for his resignation nor indicated what he would be doing next.
However speculation is that he would take over from Terence Goodlace as chief executive at Impala Platinum when he steps down at the end of the year.
Sibanye thrust into the platinum sector, which has grappled with weak prices and rising costs, after buying Aquarius Platinum for R4 billion last year.
Yesterday Sibanye become the official owner of Amplats’ Rustenburg operations after the R1.5bn transaction came into effect.
However, the Rustenburg acquisition has already faced opposition from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the country’s biggest union in the gold sector.
The NUM said last month there was nothing to celebrate about the takeover because it would open the flood gates for retrenchments. The union alleged that Sibanye’s chief executive Neal Froneman made profits by focusing on retrenchments.
The company also announced the appointment of Dawie van Aswegen as the senior vice-president for technical services for the platinum division.
Froneman thanked Nel for leading the successful integration of the Aquarius operations into Sibanye. He also welcomed Van Aswegen to the Sibanye platinum division executive team, saying his understanding of the Rustenburg operations would add further depth to an already strong platinum executive team.
“I am confident this team, under Van Niekerk’s leadership and experience, will realise significant value for stakeholders as we integrate these operations into the group,” Froneman said.
Rene Hochreiter, a mining analyst at Noah Capital Markets said Nel’s unexpected resignation was bad for the company. Hochreiter described Nel as a good manager.
“The new chief executive is not known for having experience in Anglo Platinum. However if Froneman thinks he can do the job, then he is the right man,” Hochreiter said.
Sibanye said it had implemented an empowerment transaction for Rustenburg operations that gave a 26 percent stake to empowerment partners through Newshelf 1335 Proprietary Limited – a special purpose vehicle.
The company said that the shareholders in Newshelf 1335 included Rustenburg Mine Employees Trust with 30.4 percent, Rustenburg Mine Community Development Trust with 24.8 percent, Bakgatla-Ba-Kgafela Investment Holdings with 24.8 percent and Siyanda Resources with a 20 percent stake.
“We are pleased to have concluded the transaction and look forward, together with our broad-based black economic empowerment partners, to making a positive contribution to the sustainability of the Rustenburg operations.
“We are confident that we will realise meaningful cost and operational synergies by consolidating the Rustenburg operations and Kroondal operations and secure a sustainable and rewarding future for all stakeholders,” Froneman said.