Johannesburg - Neville Nicolau, the former AngloGold Ashanti chief operating officer, has been appointed as CEO of Anglo Platinum, and he sees his top priorities as addressing safety and operational issues that have hampered the group's output.
Also on his to-do list is a review of the feasibility Anglo Platinum's expansion plans as well as its relations with communities after a spate of high-profile headlines that cast the company in a negative light in recent months, he told MiningMX on the day his appointment was announced.
Analysts were happy with the appointment, saying he had proved himself operationally in South African and had a sound track record when it came to health and safety.
"I think he's superb for Anglo Platinum. He's exactly what they need at this juncture. I don't think he's the most strategic guy, but operationally he's the correct profile for the problems they have," said an analyst who declined to be named.
"He's proven himself in South Africa. If anything, things went pear-shaped for his career when he stepped out of South Africa," the analyst said.
Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carroll's insistence on safer mines resulted in the surprise resignation of Anglo Platinum CEO Ralph Havenstein in August 2007.
"Cynthia made it clear safety was the number-one priority and operational performance was right up there with safety. We've had a good discussion about it," Nicolau said.
His appointment is effective from June 1.
He brings with him 30 years of gold-mining experience, much of it spent in South Africa, which has some of the world's deepest and dangerous mines.
"My experience is big mines with labour-intensive systems. Of course I have to learn about platinum processing and marketing, which are different, but I have been an executive director at a major South African mining company and my experience is deep-level, tabular orebody mining," he said.
"I've got a stiff induction period ahead of me over the next three months to really get a hands-on feel for platinum," he said.
Nicolau said a lot was already being done within Anglo Platinum to make its mines safer.
"I bring a lot of hands-on experience and I've seen the kinds of accidents that happen in these deep-level, tabular orebody mines. I bring a safety record where I have shown improvements in that kind of environment and I'm sensitive to what needs to happen," he said.
"Ultimately, I actually care. It is important to get safety sorted out; it is the moral licence to mine. You earn it by implementing safety management as a priority."
The market has been highly critical of Anglo Platinum's difficulties in meeting its expansion plans to boost production in a market that has been running at a deficit for years.
"I want to get a good understanding of that in the first few months I'm there and then decide strategically how to take it forward," he said. "Is expansion appropriate, are the capital projects feasible and achievable and have we got the right things in place for it?"
"Taking on the platinum role, my major objective is to make the company better. Expansion, organic growth is clearly one of those issues. I will look at it and try to fix it," he said.
"I've followed the press and I'm aware of what Anglo Platinum has said and the long-term targets they've set. Whether those are feasible or not I really need to go see and understand first hand."
Nicolau replaces acting CEOs Norman Mbazima and Duncan Wanblad, who have been deployed to other divisions within Anglo American. Mbazima will remain as Anglo Platinum's interim chief financial officer until he takes up the CEO reins at steel products business Scaw Metals.
Wanblad will be the new chief executive of the copper division within Anglo's base metals section.
- MiningMX.com
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