To join the world’s largest gold producer, Newmont. From Moneyweb.
Three years after her appointment as CEO of the world’s largest platinum producer, Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), Natascha Viljoen is off to join the world’s largest gold producer, Newmont Corporation, this time as chief operating officer.
She will stay on as CEO of Amplats for 12 months and will serve as a member of parent company Anglo American’s group management committee for the remainder of her time with the group.
She wasn’t the first woman to lead an Anglo company – Cynthia Carroll was appointed CEO of Anglo American in 2007 and held that position until announcing her resignation in 2012. While Carroll was from the US, Viljoen was the first South African woman to helm a major profit driver within the Anglo American stable.
At Amplats, she led a team of some 25 000 employees and headed up six owned and joint venture mining operations, as well as processing facilities in both SA and Zimbabwe.
Within weeks of assuming the post in 2020, she had to contend with the hard Covid lockdowns, the aftermath of an explosion at a metals converter plant, and shareholder pressure to deliver results.
She was gifted an extraordinary run in platinum group metals (PGM) prices, so by the time the Covid dust had settled and normal production resumed, she was able to report some impressive numbers: a 13% increase in PGM production to 4.3 million ounces for the year to June 2021; refined production up 89% to 5.1 million ounces; and the rand basket price for PGMs was up 22%, and 36% in US dollar terms, as of June 2021.
A year later, some of the steam had come off the PGM train, and profits returned to lower but more sustainable levels.
The company had to contend with load shedding, reduced PGM output and sharply rising mine input costs. There have been delays in the rebuild of a smelter in Polokwane, Limpopo, while expansion at Mogalakwena, also in Limpopo, awaits further studies on the likely impact on communities and the environment.
Determined decarbonisation
She took Amplats’s commitment to decarbonisation seriously, announcing the pilot launch of a hydrogen truck at the Mogalakwena mine in 2022, with plans to roll this out across the entire truck fleet. This was no small achievement, given the complexities confronting mine truck fleets, from uneven ground to high temperatures and physical obstacles.
She announced plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% (from the 2016 baseline) by 2030, with a phase-over to renewable power, possibly by 2032.
Read:
Anglo American’s hydrogen-powered truck is a head turner
Anglo American earmarks another R3.4bn for zero emissions truck project
Anglo’s Pierre Herben on its renewable energy and carbon neutrality plans
In 2022 her team concluded a ground-breaking five-year agreement with unions and employees, which should smooth out labour relations for the next few years.
Other initiatives she implemented include plans to modernise and mechanise all mining operations by 2030.
Her appointment to Amplats three years ago was as much a surprise as the announcement of her departure this week.
In April 2020, she replaced Chris Griffith as CEO of Anglo American Platinum, becoming the first woman to hold that position. Griffith meanwhile was appointed CEO at Gold Fields, a position he vacated in December 2022 after the company’s offer to purchase Canadian gold miner Yamana fell through.
Read: Chris Griffith calls it a day at Gold Fields after botched Yamana deal
This poses the interesting possibility of Griffith perhaps being rehired as CEO of Amplats.
Viljoen will no doubt be part of the recruitment process and will probably have a few names of her own to suggest.
Viljoen is by no means the only woman to join Newmont’s executive team, but she is the first on the operational side. Newmont is the world’s leading gold company and a substantial producer of copper, silver, zinc and lead. It is the only gold producer listed on the S&P 500.
Before joining Amplats, Viljoen was head of processing for Anglo American, a role she held since 2014, which gave her the kind of operational chops she would call on later as CEO of Anglo’s platinum businesses.
She is a metallurgical engineer, with a Bachelor of Engineering from North West University and an Executive MBA from the University of Cape Town. She began her career in 1991 at Iscor, as a trainee engineer. She worked for a period at AngloGold Ashanti, then took up the position of general manager at BHP’s Klipspruit Colliery before joining Lonmin in 2008.
“Natascha will further strengthen our leadership capabilities as we continue to build a resilient and profitable future for the company – safely delivering on our commitments and continuing to differentiate Newmont as the recognised leader for sustainable and responsible gold mining,” said Tom Palmer, Newmont president and CEO, in a statement on Monday.
She will take over from Rob Atkinson, currently executive vice president and chief operating officer at Newmont, who will in future report directly to Palmer.
Newmont has built a reputation for clean mining and progressive employment, appearing 15 years in a row in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.
Viljoen’s track record at Amplats will serve her well in her new role.
