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Gold mining company AngloGold Ashanti is keeping a close watch on inflation, the company’s CFO Christine Ramon said on Monday, when the company reported higher costs that reflected a significant reinvestment phase.

Newly appointed AngloGold CEO Alberto Calderon who has prioritised reductions in all costs, improvements in operating and capital efficiencies and the implementation of a new operating model, described the state of the company as not realising its full potential.

Cumulative inflation for the year to date is estimated at around 5% for the group, driven predominantly by the current level of the Brent Crude oil price, higher freight and logistics costs, higher steel and heavy equipment pricing, some bulk consumable pricing and competition for scarce resources, particularly labour in key jurisdictions including Brazil and Australia.

“We are focusing on the retention of critical skills and strengthening the necessary training and graduate programmes for succession planning. We also continue to proactively monitor global supply chains to maintain resilience and continuity of supply and did not experience any material negative impacts of supply shortfalls during quarter three,” Ramon said during the Johannesburg- and New York-listed company’s third-quarter results presentation covered by Mining Weekly.

Owing to partnerships on global spend categories as well as stocking strategies at its operations, the company, Ramon said, had benefited from a delayed inflation impact.

“However, we’ve seen increasing cost increases in the third quarter of 2021 and anticipate continued pressure throughout the remainder of 2021 and into 2022,” Ramon said.

She cited key risks facing the business as including inflationary pressures, the continued spread of Covid-19 and higher-than-normal employee turnover rates.

In Brazil, AngloGold Ashanti’s tailings facilities are currently being converted to dry-stacking operations in advance of decommissioning the existing tailings facilities.

This programme, taking place amidst the Covid pandemic, is leading to increased competition for skills and engineering resources, which has resulted in an increase to the planned investment to complete the conversion by the legal deadline.

Current estimates indicate the capital expenditure required in 2021 to implement this new technology will not exceed $150-million and the work on this is expected to continue through 2022 to 2025.

“Based on preliminary estimates to date, we anticipate that the annual capital expenditures for each of these years, whilst still material, will be significantly less than in 2021, and will decline over time,” Ramon calculated.

Gold mining company AngloGold Ashanti on Monday reported third-quarter production of 613 000 oz, which was 5% higher quarter-on-quarter, excluding Obuasi, the Ghana mine impacted earlier this year by the voluntary suspension of underground mining activities.

Newly appointed AngloGold CEO Alberto Calderon has prioritised reductions in all costs, improvements in operating and capital efficiencies and the implementation of a new operating model to ensure accountability and operational consistency and to enhance the company's positioning through the cycle.

“Operating parameters are stabilising, but there’s still much more that needs to be done to improve further the potential of our assets,” Calderon told journalists during a media conference in which Mining Weekly took part.

AngloGold stated in a release that it remained focused on its strategy to create long-term value by improving the quality of its portfolio and production base, whilst maintaining a strong balance sheet.

The balance sheet remains in a solid position, with about $2.5-billion in liquidity, including cash of $1.1-billion as at end September. The ratio of net debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) is 0.43 times.

Cash flow from operations was up 8% quarter-on-quarter to $342-million with free cash flow of $18-million.

All-in sustaining costs quarter-on-quarter were down 1% at $1 362/oz. The adjusted Ebitda of $448-million was achieved at a margin of 47%.

"We must put in place the right foundation for long-term success, and the most crucial part of that is an operating model which prioritises efficiency, agility and accountability. My immediate aim is to ensure that we have the right people, in the right places, making the right decisions, to provide better outcomes," Calderon stated.

A new $750-million bond was issued at a record-low coupon in October 2021 and the proposed acquisition of Corvus Gold provides the opportunity to establish a meaningful, low-cost production base in Nevada, in the US, the company stated.

"Doing the basics right will help us realise production and cost improvements. By empowering the line, our operators will have the organisational clarity and resources – and also the clear accountability – to deliver on their mine plans," said Calderon.

The proposed new operating model, on which more will be given in February, entails empowering the line, eliminating duplication to ensure clear accountability and improve effectiveness.

Core priorities include analysing the full potential of each asset, optimising production, cost and capital expenditure, the removal of cost not critical to strategy and ensuring the ability to generate cash flow at lower gold prices.

The company under new leadership is seeking to unlock value through fewer reporting layers with no duplication of effort.

Improvements are anticipated in the fourth quarter.

DECARBONISING AND GOING GREENER

Calderon recalled in response to Mining Weekly’s question on the company’s decarbonisation plans that AngloGold was a pioneer several years ago in reducing carbon emissions.

“Right now, there are many options under review. Just to recall, we’ve probably done about 50% to 60% carbon emission reduction since 2008. There will, I think, not be many mining companies that have done this already.

“We will continue decarbonising but at this stage it’s one of many, many things we are right now studying and we will put out an announcement,” Calderon said.

AngloGold is a signatory of the International Council on Mining and Metals’ decarbonisation pledge of achieving net-zero carbon emission by 2050.

On the appointment of appointed Marcelo Godoy as its chief technology officer, with effect from the start of this month, Calderon said Godoy brings with him experience in mine planning, resource modelling and project development.

“The combination of some new ideas and the enormous expertise of the people that we have in AngloGold is going to be very exciting,” C...

Innovation and technology development to promote and reinvigorate the country’s moribund exploration, emerging and junior mining sector are focused on developing shared infrastructure and innovations to reduce costs and make exploration more effective and efficient.

Research, development and innovation are dedicated towards what the mining industry needs to be globally competitive from an economic point of view, including productivity, lower costs and environmental, social and governance issues.

Further, innovation infrastructure, such as a test mine and a mining industry platform that were too expensive for single organisations to build, were being built for use by all relevant stakeholders to support mining modernisation, industry organisation Minerals Council South Africa modernisation and safety senior executive Sietse van der Woude said this week.

"The Minerals Council is looking at mining modernisation not only from a technology perspective, but also at social and business model modernisation. We are actively looking at building a platform and infrastructure that all stakeholders can use, such as geographic information systems and access to a test mine," he said.

Modern mining in South Africa must be socially just and ecologically sustainable, as well as inclusive and people-centric. This requires meaningful engagement among all stakeholders to co-create modern mining methods that will improve the lives of employees and communities, as well as develop new ways to upskill employees for the new jobs in mining and reskilling them for jobs in other sectors of the economy.

"The [mining industry development organisation] Mandela Mining Precinct, its partners and all key unions signed an agreement in October to ensure meaningful involvement of organised labour as mining journeys towards modernisation," Van der Woude highlighted.

Meanwhile, Mandela Mining Precinct strategic technical adviser Dick Kruger emphasised that an important programme was the Successful Application of Technologies Centred Around People (Satcap), which was aimed at supporting worker, rock-drill operator and overseer training and engineering skills development, as well as digital literacy to ensure that overseers could effectively supervise workers using sophisticated equipment.

Similarly, the Mining Skills 4.0 programme focuses on improving the effectiveness and approaches to training by leveraging cognitive and behavioural science to improve understanding and retention, as well as embed positive behaviours, said open innovation organisation Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (RIIS) engagement manager Alexandra Lugagne.

"These trends, in combination with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, have great potential to improve health and safety outcomes, and virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality allows employees to learn in a safe environment, which still allows for real-time virtual interaction where trainees will encounter replicas of physical equipment and hazards found in the mine. This innovation is being piloted at a gold mining operation to drive an overhaul of the company's e-learning system," she said.

Technology has advanced in many areas. The challenge was to ensure smooth training and skills development so that people were best able to use the technologies. To this end, the South African mining modernisation partners provided advice on curricula and training mechanisms to help ensure that the mining industry had the skills in the future to remain globally competitive and productive, she added.

Further, RIIS had seen an emergence of new technology platforms and domains that were drastically changing the cost structures of different businesses, said RIIS CEO Davis Cook.

"Two applicable technologies include space-based technologies and artificial intelligence (AI). These technologies are maturing to becoming action-oriented business tools. For example, muon tomography uses cosmic ray muons to identify resource bodies fr...

Platinum group metals (PGMs), which are hosted overwhelmingly in South Africa, have played a key role in rocketing the performance of local alkaline electrolysers, in which PGMs are not generally used.

Hydrox Holdings of Randburg, which has been pursuing hydrogen colutions for more than two decades, has achieved a wonderfully cost-effective hydrogen generation breakthrough in which PGMs feature in a highly effective manner, Hydrox CEO Corrie de Jager outlined to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Until now, alkaline electrolysers have been dogged by the issue of low current density. But by incorporating PGMs in the catalytic coatings of the electrodes, Hydrox has been able to achieve rocketed current densities of more than 700 milliamps per square centimetre (mA/cm2) at an operating voltage of 1.8 VDC.

This a massive advance on the normal 100 mA/cm2 to 200 mA/cm2 has opened the way for the introduction of Hydrox’s 1 MW Advanced Alkaline Electrolyser, a so-called zero-gap system, which will have a capacity to generate 400 kg of hydrogen a day. If sun, wind or hydropower are used, zero-carbon green hydrogen will emerge, which is just what today’s climate-conscious universe is clamouring to get its hands on.

A small-scale demonstration version will be operational before the end of this year, testing of the first 1 MW unit is due in 2022, and full scale production and installation are scheduled to take place in 2023.

“What’s nice about the whole thing is that the bulk of components, 60% of them, are locally manufactured and sourced. Only the electrodes make up the major importation and we’re in discussion with a local company and I’m very proud to say – and I just spoke to the CEO yesterday – he’s very keen to manufacture the electrodes locally. That will have a huge push. If we can push the local content up to 80%, that’ll be fantastic. We can take it forward and it’s all South African,” De Jager enthused.

“Now is the time to take the huge step by entering the manufacturing arena. Suddenly from a 5 kg a day to a 400 kg a day unit is massive. We’re on the brink of huge developments and the prospects are fantastic. Let’s go and make this world green in the interests of our country and everybody,” De Jager urged.

Hydrox was the first company to demonstrate a fully functional membraneless electrolyser through its internationally patented DEFTTM technology, but in response to the huge immediate demand for hydrogen, it has put a hold on all that to allow it to press ahead with its Advanced Alkaline Electrolyser, which has electrodes that use membranes.

Its robustness and reliability are hallmarks of alkaline electrolyser, which last many years – “possibly 20, 30, 40 years, who knows – and all you’ve got to replace every seven to eight years is the stack itself, which comprises the electrodes and the membranes – that brings the capital cost down markedly,” he enthused.

With the latest Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, or REIPPPP, bidders of solar at 30 c/kWh, Hydrox can produce hydrogen at $2.66/kg.

The 1 MW alkaline electrolyser is big enough to conceivably supply electricity to 1 000 houses. “If you want 2 MW, you can put two 1 MW units together. If you want to replace the whole unit, you just take it out and plug in the new one. When we start doing mass production, its cost will fall. The whole idea is to bring green hydrogen to the people, that’s why it's a 1 MW unit that you can put where you want,” he said.

Hydrox does not do storage at this stage, which would add about $1/kg to $1.25/kg to the cost.

NAMIBIA ANNOUNCES HYDROGEN PROJECT

News just breaking is that the Namibian government has announced the selection of HYPHEN Hydrogen Energy as the preferred bidder for a $9.4-billion green hydrogen project to be developed in the Tsau//Khaeb National Park, near the coastal town of Luderitz, in southern Namibia.

HYPHEN is a joint venture between Nicholas Hold...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer unpacks developments at diversified mining company Anglo American.

Barrick installing solar power in Nevada, eliminating coal-fired power

Gold and copper mining company Barrick, which is installing solar power in the US where coal-fired electricity generation is also earmarked for elimination, is intent on making plans rather than promises as it cuts carbon emissions. The New York- and Toronto-listed mining company, headquartered in Canada, is reducing greenhouse emissions at all 16 of its operating sites in 13 countries as part of its climate-change mitigation commitment.

Next story,

Mining modernisation to benefit junior miners, exploration in South Africa

The development and applications of technologies and techniques in mining to make it safer, more productive and more efficient are benefiting junior miners and adding tools and capabilities to stimulate minerals exploration in South Africa, mining and technology experts said on November 4. During a webinar hosted by industry body the Minerals Council South Africa on modernisation's role in boosting junior mining in South Africa, presenters highlighted some of the technologies that are under development, being trialled or entering the market that are helping to overcome various challenges in mining.

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Afrimat posts strong interim results, with all segments contributing positively to growth

Midtier openpit miner Afrimat has confirmed it is in a healthy financial position and able to accelerate growth, after delivering a ‘pleasing’ performance in the six months ended August 31. The group posted an operating profit of R582-million, up 65% on the R353-million operating profit generated in the six months ended August 31, 2020. The operating profit margin also improved from 22.7% to 24.1%.

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Ramaphosa says $8.5bn just transition partnership could become model for others

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the initial $8.5-billion to be mobilised over the next three to five years in support of South Africa’s just transition to a low-carbon economy, will facilitate the implementation of the country’s ambitious emission-reduction goals and develop a model for a just transition that could be used elsewhere. In a message to the COP26 Energy session held on November 4, Ramaphosa reiterated that South Africa required support to achieve its Nationally Determined Contribution targets, which would involve South Africa transforming its coal-dependent energy system at “unprecedented speed and scale”.

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Funding Africa’s $2.8tr net-zero transition by 2050 a ‘pressing issue’

Funding Africa’s transition to net zero by 2050 is one of the most pressing issues that Africa and the world must address, PwC states in a new report that estimates the cost of such a transition to be about $2.8-trillion. The ‘Africa Energy Review 2021’ calculates that $33-billion would be required yearly between 2020 and 2030 to place Africa on a path to a net-zero energy mix by 2050. Yearly costs would then rise substantially to $111-billion between 2030 and 2040 and to $142-billion between 2040 and 2050.

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SPONSORED POST Construction management technology adoption in Africa

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Pala...

Midtier openpit miner Afrimat has confirmed it is in a healthy financial position and able to accelerate growth, after delivering a "pleasing" performance in the six months ended August 31.

The group posted an operating profit of R582-million, up 65% on the R353-million operating profit generated in the six months ended August 31, 2020. The operating profit margin also improved from 22.7% to 24.1%.

Headline earnings per share (HEPS) increased by 60.5% year-on-year to 295.1c.

Afrimat has been growing its HEPS at an average rate of 30.2% a year, between 2017 and 2021.

The company ended the interim period with net cash from operating activities of R806-million, which was 141% more than it ended the prior comparable interim period with.

“Given the strong cash generated from operations, our borrowings were significantly reduced, which places the group in a good net positive cash position,” says CEO Andries van Heerden.

Afrimat has declared an interim dividend of 40c apiece, compared with an interim dividend of 36c apiece in the prior comparable period.

In the six months under review, the company’s Bulk Commodities segment contributed the lions' share of group profit at R453-million, which was a near-40% increase on the prior comparable period.

Van Heerden attributes the segment’s strong financial performance to a favourable iron-ore pricing environment and new mines – the Jenkins iron-ore mine and the Nkomati anthracite mine – contributing to results.

Both mines are selling product into the local market, with Jenkins ramping up to produce 1.25-million tons of iron-ore a year.

Afrimat aims to create 500 job opportunities by the end of the 2022 financial year, as a result of the Nkomati and Jenkins operations.

Afrimat plans on bringing its Driehoekspan and Doornpan iron-ore assets online once volumes from the Demaneng mine start to diminish within the next three to four years.

The Bulk Commodities segment comprised 78% of operating profit in the six months under review, followed by Construction Materials comprising 13% and Industrial Minerals comprising 9%, relative to a split of 92%, 7% and 1% in the prior comparable six months.

Further, the company’s acquisition of the Gravenhage manganese mining right from Aquila Steel South Africa remains in progress, with a water-use licence still outstanding.

Afrimat is, meanwhile, still planning the most optimal, lowest risk implementation strategy for the asset.

Afrimat’s Industrial Minerals segment reported a return to pre-Covid-19 sales volumes, resulting in a 108% year-on-year increase in operating profit to R51-million.

The Industrial Minerals segment supplies the steel industry with metallurgical dolomite, the construction industry with aggregate products and the agricultural industry with lime.

The segment also encompasses the Cape Lime business, which supplies niche markets such as chemicals, filler, glass, paint and food products manufacturing.

The company’s Construction Materials segment also experienced a return to pre-Covid-19 volumes sold, resulting in an operating profit of almost R80-million, compared with R2.8-million in the prior comparable six months.

This segment supplies aggregates of various sizes and technical specifications to large-scale civil engineering and infrastructure projects, as well as provides contract crushing, drilling and blasting services. Van Heerden states this improvement in volumes was mainly a result of normalisation to 2019 levels, rather than a result of a rise in construction activity.

He concludes that all of the company’s operating units are positioned to deliver outstanding service to the group’s customers, while acting as an efficient hedge against volatile local business conditions.

The development and application of technologies and techniques in mining to make it safer, more productive and more efficient is benefiting junior miners and adding tools and capabilities to stimulate minerals exploration in South Africa, mining and technology experts said on November 4.

During a webinar hosted by industry body the Minerals Council South Africa on modernisation's role in boosting junior mining in South Africa, presenters highlighted some of the technologies that were under development, being trialled or entering the market that were helping to overcome various challenges in mining.

The mining technologies, including two new hydro-powered rock drills, light-weight synthetic support elongates, advanced orebody mapping, real-time information management systems, and artificial intelligence and machine learning systems, under development and being piloted or trialled in mines were equally applicable to junior miners as they were to large, modern mines, said mining industry development organisation Mandela Mining Precinct strategic technical adviser Dick Kruger.

"Highly mechanised mines will have a totally different layout compared to mines that use hand drilling, and the combination of technologies will enable faster mining and for mine development to get ahead of the orebody and create reserves. Creating reserves is critical for junior miners, as past experiences in South Africa have seen junior miners running out of ore reserves," he noted.

The Mandela Mining Precinct and its innovation partners the Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (RIIS) and the Minerals Council had been investigating nascent and mature technologies worldwide for their applicability in mining in South Africa, he added.

For example, ground-penetrating radar (GPR), electric resistance tomography (TPR) and tunnel seismic tomography (TST) could help miners determine what lay beyond the rockface, inspect hanging walls, detect cavities and faults, and map out orebodies to improve mining planning, said Mandela Mining Precinct advanced orebody knowledge programme manager Michelle Pienaar.

"These technologies are available in South Africa, but the work [the Mandela Mining Precinct] is doing aims to test and optimise their use for operational underground gold and platinum mines," she highlighted.

Additionally, digital exploration, enabled by light detection and ranging (Lidar), satellite mapping, magnetic and gravity inversion sensing, was important for exploration, as the speed and efficiency with which these tools could gather data had increased dramatically since their initial development often decades ago, said diversified metals explorer Orion Minerals CEO and Minerals Council Junior Miners Leadership Forum chairperson Errol Smart.

"The high resolution of these tools and using cloud technologies to interrogate massive data sets are changing things, and regions that are using these capabilities are discovering new orebodies almost every week. South Africa stopped exploring for new deposits decades ago and missed the boom in exploration that happened worldwide during the 1990s, which led to several countries' mining industries growing rapidly," he said.

Elsewhere in the world, junior miners were pathfinders and scouts; the people who went ahead and innovated and did things that the larger miners did not do. Prospectors should be the experimenters, explorers and discoverers. In South Africa, junior miners had become relegated to scavengers, Smart asserted.

"South Africa has a lot of catching up to do in applying technologies locally that are part of standard practices worldwide. We can become leaders in discovering new ore deposits again, and then use the amazing technologies we developed to extract the minerals. The opportunity for South Africa lies in bolstering the contributions of junior miners to discover new orebodies," he said.

In terms of exploration, if one looked at AI and deep learning systems, there was some exciting w...

Gold and copper mining company Barrick, which is installing solar power in the US where coal-fired electricity generation is also earmarked for elimination, is intent on making plans rather than promises as it cuts carbon emissions.

The New York- and Toronto-listed mining company, headquartered in Canada, is reducing greenhouse-gas emissions at all 16 of its operating sites in 13 countries as part of its climate-change mitigation commitment.

The US’ Nevada Gold Mines is to have a solar power plant with initial capacity of 100 MW and a permit already received to double that to 200 MW, while Veladero in Argentina is completing construction of its cross-border link-up with the Chilean national power grid ­– a global leader in renewable energy. Nevada’s transition from coal power to a dual energy solution is expected to halve the complex’s carbon pollution.

For the eleventh successive quarter, Barrick has met or beaten consensus, president and CE Mark Bristow said on Thursday when strong third quarter production from its Africa, Middle East and Latin America regions positioned the company to meet the top end of its guidance for the year.

“We’ve really got to that point in two and three quarter years from the merger where we have ticked all the boxes,” Bristow stated in a telephone interview with Mining Weekly.

The operating third-quarter cash flow of $1 050-million and the free cash flow of $481-million does not reflect the $500-million in the Kibali joint venture in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which collectively supports an already strong balance sheet and the funding of Barrick’s capital allocation priorities.

Moreover, the third $250-million tranche of the return of capital distribution totalling $750-million will be paid to shareholders on December 15.

Brownfield exploration, particularly in North America and Africa, is poised to replace all the gold that Barrick is expected to produce this year “plus some”, said Bristow, driven by the continued successes at Goldstrike in Nevada, as well as exploration at Kibali, Loulo-Gounkoto, in Mali, and Barrick’s Tanzanian mines all replacing the gold that they have mined.

Moreover, the drive to expand its portfolio and extend its global footprint has added new exploration projects in five countries.

Attributable gold production in the third quarter was 1.09-million ounces and output for the year-to-date totals 3.23-million ounces. Attributable copper production for the quarter was 100-million pounds and 289-million pounds for the year-to-date. Even though Latin America will be slightly behind, overall the group is in shape.

EMISSION-REDUCTION ROADMAP

Barrick has a scientifically based emission reduction roadmap that targets a 30% cut by 2030 against its 2018 baseline and a net-zero outcome by 2050.

“Promise without a plan seems to be the vogue and we’ve got a proper roadmap where we’ve either started or have planned. It’ll take us to 25% reduction by 2030 and that leaves us 5% to work on and eight years to do it. We’ve always said we don’t want to promise without a plan,” said Bristow.

Solar power has already been installed at Loulo-Gounkoto, where a microgrid is operational and battery storage is being augmented. Tongon, in Cote d'Ivoire, has a largely clean power grid. The three hydropower stations at Kibali have been enhanced by the installation of a 9 MW battery support system. The power line from Chile, which is said to have the greenest grid in the world, to Argentina, for Veladero, has been completed.

“That will take out 100 000 t of carbon emissions on an annual basis,” said Bristow – and two power stations are being converted to natural gas.

The 200 MW of solar power at Nevada will not only help Barrick to meet its own commitments but also to comply with State of Nevada targets. The Hemlo mine in Ontario is linked to a very green part of the Canadian grid.

“And we have many more little initiatives that we’re working on, with each emission reduction defined,” said ...

Diversified mining company Anglo American on Wednesday announced the appointment of Duncan Wanblad as chief executive with effect from the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) on April 19 next year – and has also spelt out details of Wanblad’s upcoming remuneration package in considerable detail.

Mark Cutifani, who will retire as CE and step down from the board at the AGM after nine years in the role, said he could think of no better leader than Wanblad to “pick up the baton and pursue the many opportunities that lie ahead of our business”.

Wanblad, a South African described as the standout candidate by Anglo chairperson Stuart Chambers, will also join the board as an executive director. He brings 30 years of international mining experience and deep understanding of Anglo’s culture and its context, it was outlined at a media conference covered by Mining Weekly.

In both executive and non-executive roles spanning most of Anglo’s business, Chambers noted that Wanblad had been integral to shaping the strong competitive position of the company. He is seen as being uniquely qualified to take Anglo to its next phase of improvement.

A superbly performing Cutifani, who managed to hoist Anglo above all its peers in less than a decade, said that in retirement he wanted to do things in technology, sustainability, social and energy transitions, as well as “sort out a few things” for family members.

The last time Anglo had a South African in charge was during the tenure of Tony Trahar, who served from 2000 to 2007.

Australian Cutifani was credited by Chambers with being so distinctly in tune with South Africa that he recently drew highly favourable comment from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

On what legacy he would like to leave, Cutifani told journalists that first on his list would be the work done in defining what Anglo was all about and thereafter, more importantly, what every individual could rely on the company to do to make an important difference in this world. “It touches safety, it touches environment, it touches communities, it touches our role in society, and it brings a lot together to deliver returns to shareholders that truly are sustainable,” said Cutifani.

Minerals Council South Africa warmly welcomed Wanblad’s appointment while simultaneously hailing Cutifani’s contribution to South Africa as being “wonderful, marked and profound”. Cutifani’s guidance, words of wisdom in difficult times, patience, strategic thinking and measured approach to problems had proved an inspiration.

Anglo’s commitment to improving the lives of people living in near-mine communities, adherence to global best operational practice and environmental credibility under Cutifani could not have come at a better time to lead by example, Minerals Council South Africa stated, while adding that it looked forward to a strong relationship with Wanblad and pledged to give him whatever support it could in his new role.

Minerals Council South Africa CEO Roger Baxter described as vast Wanblad’s knowledge of multiple commodities and mining jurisdictions, especially South Africa, which would stand him in good stead to lead Anglo into a new era.

REMUNERATION PACKAGE

Wanblad’s remuneration package, Anglo stated, would comprise a basic salary and variable incentive arrangements that were fully in line with Anglo’s current remuneration policy.

The key elements of his package, it said in a media release, would include a basic salary of £1 250 000 a year, an annual contribution of 15% of basic salary to pension – in line with the typical contribution rate for the UK workforce from 2023 – and a maximum annual bonus of 210% of basic salary for 2022, pro-rated from the start date.

Half of any bonus earned would be deferred into shares, with one-third vesting after two years and two-thirds vesting after three years.

Under the long-term incentive plan, an annual award of up to 300% of basic salary would be made, which would vest after three years, to the extent ...