Past Speakers

Ntsiki Adonisi-Kgame is an executive in ENSafrica’s natural resources and environment department. She specialises in all aspects of natural resources and environmental law. She is an admitted attorney, notary public and conveyancer of the High Court of South Africa. She has a holistic perspective on mining matters due to her former position as general counsel for a leading mining group, where she was responsible for the group’s entire legal function. She acts for a wide range of mining companies in all mineral commodity sectors, including the base and precious metals, coal, rare earths, sand and diamonds sectors. Ntsiki’s experience covers a broad range of areas, including mergers and acquisitions; conducting mining due diligences; execution and registration of mining titles; advising on the integrity, security of tenure and variation of mining titles; and structuring, drafting, negotiating and reviewing various types of agreements, from project inception to execution. She has experience in disputes in the mining sector, including judicial review of administrative decisions. She also advises on aspects of mineral royalties, environmental aspects of mining law and stakeholders in the mining sector. Ntsiki’s experience further includes all aspects of regulatory work in the mining industry, for listed and unlisted senior, mid-tier and junior companies. Ntsiki has authored and co-authored a number of topical mining law articles in various publications.

James has worked in the mining and mining financial services industries since 1983. After graduating at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1982, he worked at Wankie Colliery in Zimbabwe before joining Boart International in 1985. James worked as a mining analyst on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange from 1990 to 2003 before moving into corporate finance. Sable Platinum was started in 2006 and has built up a portfolio of exploration projects covering approximately 600 square kilometres of the Bushveld Igneous Complex in South Africa. Sable Platinum listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in November 2012. During 2013 the portfolio was diversified and the name was changed to Sable Metals and Minerals on 3rd March 2014.

Harry Anagnostaras-Adams was founder or co-founder of Citicorp Capital Investors Australia, investment company Pilatus Capital, Australian Gold Council, EMED Mining, KEFI Minerals and Cyprus-based Semarang Enterprises. He has overseen a number of start-ups in those and their related organisations, principally through the roles of Chairman, Deputy Chairman or Managing Director. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant while working with PricewaterhouseCoopers and has a Master of Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management.

Dr Michael Anderson has extensive management and technical experience built up over a 30-year career in Africa and Australia. Michael recently joined Firefinch Ltd from Taurus Funds Management where he helped to lead the fund’s investment into numerous West African gold producers. Previously, as Managing Director of Exco Resources, he led the company to a number of major achievements, including the successful development of the White Dam Gold Mine, advancement of resource development, feasibility studies and approvals for the Cloncurry Copper Project ahead of its ultimate sale to Xstrata for A$175M, and numerous funding arrangements, all of which led to a significant share price re-rating and a five-fold increase in market capitalisation. Dr Anderson holds a BSc. (1st Class Honours in Mining Geology) and a PhD in Mining Geology, both from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, University of London.

Bontle holds a B. Eng (Hons) Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pretoria and is currently doing a programme in Executive Leadership at the Harvard Business School. Bontle was an Exxaro bursar who worked through the ranks at Exxaro in the engineering discipline and later got retrenched at Arnot Mine. She is the co-founder and CEO of Arnot Opco, which is an employee-led coal mining company that successfully took over Arnot Mine to restart operations.

Fred is an entrepreneur and has more than 24 years of experience in the mining industry, having spent 4 years with JCI coal division before joining Anglo American Platinum, where he rose to the position of Head of Transformation at the Corporate Office. He holds a degree in Human Resources and Business Management from the University of South Africa and a LDP from WITS. He literally founded the SSC group in 2005 in his garage and built the business from scratch into a multi-million rand growing business. He is very passionate about community engagement and development and is the Chairman of the NPO, Peace Prosperity Foundation, and a member of the Black Management Forum. Fred serves on various boards, including Redpath Mining and SSC associated companies. His company recently signed a deal which will result in the acquisition of Vantage Goldfields and Lily Mine where the tragic container collapse happened. His biggest ambition is to build a black Anglo American, which is co-owned by communities and employees.

Stuart is a qualified chartered accountant and CFA with extensive mining industry experience across many geographies and commodities. As a director of Concentrate Capital Partners (CCP), Stuart works with a multi-disciplinary global team of financial and technical specialists and partners to provide independent advice to project owners as well as to consider investment directly into projects through CCP's managed private equity fund. Stuart has over 15 years' advisory experience, having previously worked for Rothschild and KPMG.

Markus Bachmann holds a Master (MA) in Business and Economics (cum laude) from the University of Berne, Switzerland.
Markus started his career in the corporate finance department of the Credit Suisse Group, before joining SBC Brinson Asset Management Emerging Markets team in 1997. There he was assigned responsibility for the analysis and portfolio management for the equity markets of Greece, Portugal, the Middle East (including Israel) and Africa.
In 2000 he joined Coronation Fund Managers in Cape Town, South Africa, as a senior portfolio manager and global resources specialist, becoming the responsible fund manager for various retail products and institutional mandates. In 2001, he received the S&P Award for the best performing large cap equity unit trust in South Africa.
Markus co-founded Craton Capital in 2003. He is the Manager of the Craton Capital Precious Metal Fund and the Global Resources Fund.
Under his management, the Craton Capital funds received a number of prestigious industry awards for management and performance excellence, including Sauren Golden Award, €uro am Sonntag and Mining Journal Outstanding Achievement.

Sacha Backes is a Senior Investment Officer at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, mandated to provide financing and support to companies investing in frontier and emerging markets. In the mining sector, IFC can provide financing for activities across the project cycle, from equity for advanced exploration and studies, all the way to debt for project developments and expansions, as well as hybrid instruments for intermediate stages. Sacha has been with IFC for ten years - four years in London focusing on business development for mining, and oil and gas, four years at IFC’s headquarter office in Washington DC focusing on mining and infrastructure transactions, and now two years in IFC’s office in Johannesburg office focusing on mining investments across Africa. Prior to joining IFC, Sacha worked in Laos for seven years where he launched and managed several rural infrastructure development projects. Sacha has a PhD in Physics from Cambridge University and an MBA from INSEAD.

Jacques Badenhorst is a metallurgist with over 25 years’ experience in operations and project development, managing diverse mining projects ranging from coal, gold, manganese, titanium to diamond. He is a co-founder of Maatla Energy / Resources and responsible for strategy and implementation of the coal and energy business facets of Maatla Energy as CEO. He has been the Managing Director of ASX listed Zamanco Minerals Limited and co-founder of Mineral Processing company MRD. He is a member of the South African Institute for Mining and Metallurgy, Mine Metallurgical Managers Association and Institute of Directors SA. In the past, Jacques has worked for Grinaker / LTA Process Engineering and Anglo American Corporation, implementing and operating various medium and large scale mineral projects.

Matthews Bagopi joined Morupule Coal Mine in December 2007 as a Plant Manager.  In 2011, Matthews was appointed to the position of Business Development Manager. Earlier in 2021 Matthews was appointed Acting General Manager of Morupule Coal Mine, a position he still occupies. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Minerals Engineering from the Camborne School of Mines in England. He is responsible for business development and sales and marketing.

Mr Frans Baleni is the past General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, South Africa’s largest trade Union, a role he has held since 2006. He started his career in the mining industry in 1979 and a year later was elected a Shop Steward. In 1988, he became Branch Chairman at the Western Holdings Mine in Welkom. Frans then joined the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM’s) arm and held a variety of posts until his election in 2006 as General Secretary. He was a member of the JB Marks Bursary Trust and established its mandate – the provision of sustainable funding to support the education of NUM members and their dependents. As Chairman of the Mineworkers Investment Trust, he oversaw assets in excess of R5b. During the 1980’s joined the UDF (United Democratic Front) in its battle against apartheid. In the early 1990’s, he served on the negotiating team at CODESA (the Convention for a Democratic South Africa) seeking to level the political ‘playing field’. As a board member, Mr Baleni brings sound commercial, risk, governance and compliance skills together with his expertise in health and safety, government relations, education and training, energy sector, stakeholder management and collective bargaining processes.

Obtained a BSc degree in 1985 from the National University of Lesotho. Worked at BECSA’s Rietpruit Opencast Services as head of IT until 1996. He is the Executive Chairman and co-founder of Kuyasa Mining, a coal mining company that was founded in 1995 as the first Black owned and operated mining company in South Africa. Involved as an advisor to the Mpumalanga government in the area of economic development.

John Barton-Bridges has more than thirty years professional experience, primarily in the mining and infrastructure sectors. Born and raised in Africa, he left South Africa in 1985 and gained his professional experience in the United States, Canada and the emerging markets of Latin America, Central Asia, and Africa. He holds a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Cape Town, a M.Sc. from the University of London, Imperial College (D.I.C.), and an MBA from INSEAD, France. Following his MBA, John spent 10 years with the International Finance Corporation of Washington, D.C., where he was appointed Principal Investment Officer. While at IFC he was seconded to the Development Bank of Southern Africa in 1998 to head up the Private Sector Investment Unit of the bank, after which he spent 6 years as Vice President in the private equity team of AIG Investments. Since 2007 he has served as Chief Executive Officer of the Jonah Capital Group, headed by Sam Jonah KBE, OSG.

Mr Baxter was appointed CEO of the Minerals Council in 2015. He has 29 years of high-level advocacy and strategy experience in the business and mining sectors. He was involved in the first mineral policy discussions with the ANC in 1992 and in most of the significant minerals policy discussions since then.  He has participated in, and often led, the business negotiation teams on a range of issues such as the 2002 Mining Charter, the 1998 Energy Policy White Paper, the 1997 Skills Development Act, the 2009 Royalty Act, the 2010 revised Mining Charter, etc. He has participated in all the Presidential Job Summit and Investment Conferences, and he has played a leadership role in encouraging government to focus on the issues that drive South Africa’s investment competitiveness. He previously chaired the Business Unity South Africa’s (BUSA) Economic Policy Committee and Economic Growth Task Team. He is the Founding Chairman of the World Platinum Investment Council. He recently participated in President Ramaphosa’s 7-a-side NEDLAC leadership team looking at how to revive the economy post COVID-19. He has played a key leadership role in rejuvenating the brand of the Minerals Council and brings material leadership, governance, strategy, investment, and transformation skills to the table.

He is a member of the Minerals Council Board, the BUSA Board, the TEBA Fund Trust Board of Trustees and he chairs the World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC). He is Chairman of the Associations Coordination Group of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) and is the current Chairman of the Mining Industry Association of Southern Africa (MIASA). In 2020, Mr Baxter was the winner of the Mining Review Africa, 2020 Mining Thought Leader of the Year award. The article states “Fully committed to the mining industry and a person who pulls no punches when it comes to addressing pertinent matters. These words aptly describe Minerals Council South Africa CEO Roger Baxter.” In 2018, Mr Baxter was awarded the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy’s (SAIMM) Brigadier Stokes Platinum medal for his contribution to the South African mining sector. Since the launch of the MiningMX “Rainmaker and Pot-stirrers” publication, Mr Baxter has been listed as one of Africa’s top 100 most influential people in the mining industry.

Vuslat Bayoglu is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of mining investment company Menar, which has controlling stakes in Canyon Coal, Zululand Anthracite Colliery, Kangra Coal and East Manganese. He holds an honours degree in Mechanical Engineering and has over 16 years’ experience in the mining industry. During that period, he has led the group’s subsidiaries from junior to mid-tier status through organic growth and acquisitions.  Bayoglu is a hands-on investor with a keen interest in bettering the South African economy. He is actively involved in seeking solutions to key issues faced by South Africa. Bayoglu also serves on the board of the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT).

With over 25 years’ experience in mining, finance and management, George has led a number of mining and energy companies, including Shanta Gold Ltd (which he successfully listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2005), OreCorp Ltd, Argentum (Pty) Energy, and most recently Karo Power (Pvt) Ltd. In 2006, George established MDM Engineering Ltd, which he successfully listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2008. MDM Engineering Ltd is a mining engineering company building mineral process plants and mining infrastructure throughout Africa. In 2014, George was instrumental in selling the business to Foster Wheeler Limited for US$120 million. In addition, George has been a partner and director with a number of leading financial, broking and advisory businesses including Fergusson Bros, Simpson Mckie, and HSBC Securities Africa (Pty) Ltd.

Sean Bennett is the CEO of Kore Potash (appointed in November 2015). Before this Sean was the CEO of UBS South Africa and Head of Sub-Saharan Africa. Sean joined SG Warburg in London in 1995 (now UBS Investment Bank) and then moved to South Africa in 2008, where he was co-Head of HSBC Global Banking for Africa before re-joining UBS in 2011. Sean has over 20 years’ experience in advising a wide range of companies, state owned enterprises and Governments, including several large mining houses such as BHP, South32 and Sibanye in corporate finance. He has been involved in many corporate finance transactions around the globe as well as numerous countries across Africa.

William is an Executive Director of BSM Black and holds a degree in Chemistry from the UK and an MBA from the University of Witwatersrand.

William has over 25 years of experience in the natural resources sector followed by 3 years as a mining equities analyst and 5 years of Investment Banking experience at Investec Corporate finance on the mining team. Starting as a shift supervisor, career highlights include the development and commissioning of metallurgical processes, beneficiation projects, industry and market analysis at Implats. The publishing of a book on the global platinum industry in 2000, 2 years of managing a gold project in Tanzania and the financial and technical evaluation of various projects in the mining sector.

William has advised numerous mining clients on a number of transactions ranging from stock exchange listings, capital raises, M&A and BEE transactions, including most recently advising eXtract Group on its restructuring process.

Trevor Blench has been the Chairman and the Chief Executive of Steenkampskraal Holdings Ltd. (SHL) since 2015. SHL is developing the Steenkampskraal rare earth project in South Africa. Between 2010 and 2015, he was the Chairman and the Chief Executive of Steenkampskraal Thorium Ltd. (STL), a company that was developing thorium as a nuclear fuel. Before 2010, he was the Chairman and the Chief Executive of Rare Earth Extraction Co. Ltd. (Rareco, now SHL), also working on the Steenkampskraal rare earth project. He worked in financial services for many years. He was a stockbroker and a member of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. He holds a B.A. degree in Economics, an M.A. degree in International Relations and a Master’s degree in Business Administration.

Wickus is the Africa Mining & Metals Sector Leader for EY and an experienced partner with 20 years’ experience serving clients in the sector. Wickus is a Chartered Accountant and accredited to audit JSE listed, TSX listed and US SEC registered companies. He has worked closely with several mining & metals companies, ranging from some of the largest multinationals to the mid tiers, juniors, explorers and mining service providers operating across the African continent. He spends much of his time with clients evaluating prospective investments across Africa. He has a passion for working closely with clients to finding practical solutions to complex challenges. As sector leader, Wickus ensures that the various teams of professionals, located in the various mining hubs across Africa, consistently offer high quality in-country expertise and services to their clients.

Graham Briggs joined Harmony in 1995 as new business manager and was appointed chief executive officer in 2008, a position he held until 2015.  He has been in the mining industry for 38 years, initially as a geologist. His operational and managerial experience was developed at a number of South African gold mines, as well as mines in Canada, Australia and Papua New Guinea. Graham presently holds several non-executive directorships and is a consultant to 98 Degrees Financial Services.

John Bristow obtained BSc (Hons) (1974) and MSc (1977) degrees in Geology from the University of Natal, and a PhD in Geochemistry at the University of Cape Town in 1981. He undertook further research and mineral and mining studies on a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of New Mexico (USA) in 1981-82.
He was employed by the Anglo American and De Beers Group companies for 12 years from 1983 – 1994. He left Anglo American in 1994 and established an international diamond consultancy, also making a successful transition to the junior exploration and mining sector.
John has gained exploration and project development experience in all the world’s major minerals and mining jurisdictions, as well as in several African jurisdictions. He has considerable local (southern African and African) and International experience in the exploration, development, and exploitation of kimberlites and land and marine based alluvial diamond deposits, as well as the marketing and sales of gemstone diamonds.
He has played key roles in the successful structuring, fund raising, and executive management of three junior diamond exploration and mining companies, including two publically listed entities. In addition to his diamond experience he has worked in the coal, industrial, base, and precious minerals and metals sectors.
He has wide ranging corporate, management, and local and foreign listed company experience, and currently provides Consulting and Contracting services to the local and international minerals industry, specializing in diamonds and precious stones.

Nick Brodie is a senior executive with extensive experience in Africa. Prior to joining Galane Gold, Nick was the CFO of Katanga Mining Limited and Copperbelt Energy Corporation Plc. Nick is a Fellow of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants and holds a BSc(Hons) in Geography.

Mr Brown has over 20 years of experience in the diamond industry where he has gained a wealth of experience across all aspects of the Diamond Industry throughout the diamond pipeline from exploration to selling and marketing of diamonds. In 2006, Mr Brown was appointed as the De Beers Group CFO – a position he held for over five years – and in 2010 Mr Brown was appointed Joint Acting CEO to run De Beers’s global activities in tandem with his CFO duties. Mr Brown has an enviable track record of leading business transformation to develop lean, agile and high performing organisations. Mr Brown holds a Bachelor of Accounting Science (BCompt) from the University of South Africa (UNISA) and is a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Sean Browne is an Executive Director at Acrux Resources with 19 years’ experience in investment banking, commodity derivative sales, structuring and trading, FX and rates trading, debt capital markets, structured mining finance and deal origination. Sean has worked at Deutsche Bank, Standard Bank of South Africa and Standard Chartered Bank. He holds a BA in Law and English and a Postgraduate Diploma in Finance, Banking and Investment Management.

James Campbell has spent over 30 years in the diamond industry in a variety of leadership roles both in major and junior companies.  He is currently MD of Botswana Diamonds and also a Non-Executive Director of Shefa Gems. Previously he held leadership roles at Rockwell Diamonds, Stellar Diamonds, Lucara Diamond, African Diamonds, West African Diamonds and De Beers where he spent over 20 years with notable appointments including GM Exploration and Nicky Oppenheimer's Personal Assistant. James is also Chairman of the leadership development NPO Common Purpose SA. James holds a degree in Mining & Exploration Geology from the Royal School of Mines (Imperial College, London) and a MBA with distinction from Durham University. James is a Fellow of the IOM3, SAIMM and IODSA.  He is also a C.Eng (UK), C.Sci (UK) and Pr.Sci.Nat.  

Tebello is an admitted attorney with the earlier part of his career focusing on labour and commercial law. He has a career spanning c.20 years in the mining industry with experience in social development, public relations, mining policy and advocacy. He has dealt with delicate issues such as the negotiation of BEE policy and targets with various regulators and stakeholders. His mining policy and regulatory experience traverses many commodities, local and foreign mining jurisdictions. He has successfully managed public and stakeholder relations during high profile industry disputes and litigation. He prides himself on seeking sustainable win-win solutions to mining industry challenges. 

Pravin qualified as a geologist in 1990 from UDW, now University of KZN, before joining Anglo American’s New Vaal Colliery where he started his career as a geologist, responsible for mine planning and grade control. He received an Anglo bursary to study Mining Engineering in 1994 at the University of Johannesburg. He graduated in 1996 and was thereafter transferred to Kriel Colliery to obtain his Mine Manager’s Certificate. There he gained three years of underground coal mining experience.
In 1998 he moved to Kleinkopjie Colliery as the Senior Mine Planner. In 2000 he moved to Landau Colliery to fill the critical Mining Superintendent vacancy at the Kromdraai Pit, a mid-sized pit mining pillars with Truck & Shovel and a BE1570 Dragline. He was promoted to Pit Superintendent (Section Manager) in 2004.
In 2005 he was head-hunted by Xstrata SA as Mine Manager of their five mini-pit operations at Tweefontein Mining Complex. These operations were mined by contractors and included the boxcut for the now 12 mega ton Goedgevonden Colliery. In 2008 he was promoted to General Manager of the iMpunzi Complex, mining 45 million m3 of waste, and 11.5 million tons of coal.
Pravin joined the Puckree Group in 2017 as Head of Mining Operations and is currently responsible for mining operations at the Group’s Witrand and Bultfontein Collieries.

Paul Chimbodza is an Executive Director of Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe, the developers of Africa’s second largest drill proven hard rock Arcadia Lithium project in Zimbabwe. He is also the Executive Chairman of Geo Associates (Pvt) Ltd, a junior resources company that holds an oil and gas exploration licence over the Cabora Bassa Basin that has been historically explored by Mobil Oil. Paul is holder of a BSc Geology Honours degree, and is an Associate Member of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM). Paul has held executive positions of increasing responsibility including General Manager Exploration at Metallon Gold, non-Executive Director of the Hwange Colliery Company, Executive Director at Falcon Gold, Executive Director for Wickbury Investments, the owners of Dinhidza vermiculite mine.  He is a former member of the Zimbabwe Mining Affairs Board, a member of the Chamber of Mines Executive Committee and sits on the boards of a number of public and private companies in Zimbabwe and abroad.

Lloyd Christie is a director at ENSafrica in the natural resource law department. He specialises in mining and environmental law, with a focus on providing mineral resource regulatory advice, including advising on resource finance projects, disposals and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, black economic empowerment transactions, strategic planning in relation to green field operations, resource disputes and lobbying regulators. He also advises on environmental regulation to the waste, water, nuclear, mining, banking and other industries affected by environmental legislation.
Lloyd’s experience includes lobbying government regarding environmental fiscal reform and developing new fossil fuel-based, nuclear and renewable energy facilities and maximising carbon opportunities under international treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol. Lloyd has extensive experience in advising on environmental impact assessments, matters involving industrial decommissioning and land contamination, mine closure and rehabilitation, environmental law related dispute resolution, mine health and safety and community engagement. Lloyd has also acquired a particular expertise in nuclear regulation in South Africa advising the developer of third generation nuclear technology and has developed one of the leading carbon practices in South Africa, having advised on numerous Clean Development Mechanism projects. Lloyd is a member of the Environmental Lawyers Association and the South African Clean Development Mechanism Association. He has also acted in the Labour Court, High Court and Magistrate’s Court. He co-authored the South African Country Chapter in the PLC Cross-border Environment Handbook 2010. Lloyd is recognised as a leading lawyer by the following reputable rating agencies and their publication/s: Chambers and Partners Global Guide to the World's Leading Lawyers 2014, 2015, 2016 - Energy & Natural Resources: Mining (South Africa); Chambers and Partners Global Guide to the World's Leading Lawyers 2015 and 2016 - Environment (South Africa); The International Who’s Who of Mining Lawyers 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 (South Africa); The International Who’s Who of Environmental Lawyers 2015 & 2016 (South Africa); The Legal 500 Guide to Outstanding Lawyers 2015, 2016 – Mining.

An electrical engineer by training, Anthony Clark entered the stock market in the early 1990s, working in London within equity sales in emerging markets. South Africa was one of his coverage countries when the JSE, back then, was the 10^th largest stock market in the world. How times have changed!  Anthony moved to South Africa in 1996 and has had a career with many leading domestic financial institutions within equity sales, corporate broking and as a top-rated equity analyst. In 2019, Anthony became an independent analyst and continued to use the brand name Smalltalk, a name familiar to institutional investors for two decades. Anthony is a prolific analyst, contributes to many media outlets and is a regular contributor to the Business Day and also writes for the Financial Mail. He covers over 70 stocks in his sector. Anthony’s main sector coverage is small-to-medium market capitalisation companies where he has been top rated in the sector for the past 12 successive years (he also managed to get a small-to-mid cap resources rating along the way too). He has covered Afrimat as an analyst since its listing on the JSE in 2006 and has followed the meteoric rise in the group’s fortunes and profile led by the current CEO Andries van Heerden. Anthony identified Renergen early on as a speculative company to watch as well as CEO Stef Marani. His buy rating in early 2021 at R13.00 was well timed as this was when the company started commercialising its Free State gas project. He was the first professional sell-side analyst to cover Renergen.

Tim has been with Standard Bank for three years as Head of mining research and as a mining analyst covering the global diversified miners. Before that Tim was at Deutsche Bank for 9 years and was the SA diversified mining analyst, co-head of research and head of CEMEA mining research. Tim is a Chartered Accountant (CA SA) and has a M.Sc Finance (London Business School) and a B.Bus.Sci (Hons, UCT).

Dr Brendan Clarke heads up the Geology department at MSA. Brendan has 17 years of exploration and project development experience and has worked in 25 countries in Africa, the middle East and Asia. Brendan’s personal fields of expertise include gold, base metal, iron ore and PGE exploration, the application of technological innovation in the exploration space and the project management and budget control of multidisciplinary programmes.

Andy has more than 30 years of experience in the minerals industry, from field geology, research, and mineral resource management to commercial due diligence and evaluation of a wide range of local and international mineral assets. He has more than 20 years of experience working with commercial banks and financial institutions on transactions in the minerals industry, and has been involved in the preparation of numerous codes and rules for compliance and reporting in the public domain. He leads the Venmyn Deloitte team in mineral asset valuation and independent reporting on mineral asset transactions for the market.

Mr. Clegg, a British and South African Citizen, with Turkish residency is a Mining, Natural Resources & Energy Industry Professional with over 35 years’ experience gained from working mining & minerals projects, process & metallurgical industries and related supply industries in more than 160 countries on all the continents.
He is a registered Professional Mining Engineer (Pr.Eng), a registered Professional Construction Project Manager (Pr.CPM), a registered Project Management Professional (PMP), and carries professional Fellowship status with South African Institute of Mining & Metallurgy (FSAIMM) and the Institute of Quarrying (FIOQ) as well a professional memberships of all the major Mining Institutes globally and is a recognized mining technical assessment, reporting and mining project valuation expert with key experience in stock exchange listings and the requirements for successful capital raising.
Mr. Clegg has been intimately involved as executive manager, team leader or member of teams that have completed feasibility studies and/or constructed on ECM, EPC or EPCM basis over 60 Mining & Mineral Projects with a combined value in money of today in excess of US$18 Billion over the last 25 years.
He has advised a number of governments on Mining Policy, Legislation & Regulation since 1990, as well as being the architect & executor of practical plans for unlocking the potential value of their resources base.
Mr. Clegg has been Chairman of numerous high profile Mining & Resources Technical Conferences and Seminars in the industry both in Turkey and globally, and most recently will Chair the African Union supported event, The African Mining Summit in December 2016 in Tanzania. He is also an accomplished technical author and speaker of over 40 papers and Journal Articles. Further, he has been nominated for a number
of awards and prizes internationally, most recently for the prestigious “John Barrie Award” of the PMI (USA) Project Management Institute, for his contribution to Project Management Theory & Practice.
Mr. Clegg held 5 past Board appointments, including 3 at CEO level in International and Multinational mining, process engineering, mining equipment & construction sector companies and has been active as a member of the Institute of Directors in several countries keeping fully up to date with highest standards for Corporate Governance in companies. He currently holds 3 (Three) Non-Executive Directorships, 2 (Two) of which are as Board Chair, in Natural Resources, Energy and Process related sector companies.

Marna Cloete is a registered Chartered Accountant and holds a Master’s Degree in Taxation from the University of Pretoria. In 2006, Marna joined Ivanhoe Mines, and in 2009 she was promoted to Chief Financial Officer and to President in 2020. Marna played an instrumental role as part of the Ivanhoe leadership team, achieving a number of strategic milestones as well as listing the Company on the TSX and concluding multiple strategic partnerships and financings with inter alia a Japanese consortium led by Itochu, Zijin Mining and CITIC Metal. She also serves on the Board of Centamin plc as an independent non-executive director and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee. Prior to joining Ivanhoe, Marna forged her career at PwC in 2002, in the Metals and Mining division, subsequently moving on to Group Five Construction.

Val obtained his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Stellenbosch, followed a few years later, by a Master of Engineering in Mineral Economics from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. Val started his career with the De Beers Group, before joining Impala Platinum, Rustenburg, as an Operations Manager and Technical Manager. He joined DRA in 2008 as a Senior Process Engineer and has been intimately involved with a vast number of global projects across a broad range of commodities, including amongst others: Gold, Platinum, Uranium, Base-Metals, Chrome, Iron Ore, Lithium and Ferrochrome. Val is currently a SVP at DRA, with a primary focus on Process Engineering and Project Development within the group. Val remains closely involved with project development, particularly early stage studies, and has acted as competent person for studies that meet the requisite standards of disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Louis Coetzee has 25 years experience in business development, promotion and financing in both the public and private sector. In recent years he has concentrated on the exploration and mining area where he has founded, promoted and developed a number of junior mineral exploration companies based mainly on Tanzanian assets. Louis has tertiary qualifications in law and languages, project management, supply chain management and a MBA from Bond University (Australia) specializing in entrepreneurship and business planning and strategy. He has worked in various project management and business development roles mostly in the mining industry throughout his career. Between 2007 and 2009, Louis held the position of Vice-President, Business Development with Canadian listed Great Basin Gold (TSX: CBG).

Chief Executive Officer of Eqstra’s Contract Mining, Plant Leasing & Rental division – MCC - Justin Colling has a National Diploma in Civil Engineering and more than twenty years of experience in the mining and construction industries, including eleven years contract mining in Africa and five years in Asia and Indonesia. In brief, Colling joined PT Leighton Contractors Indonesia as General Manager Mining in 2010 and was appointed President Director in the following year. Prior to that he was an executive director of Moolmans South Africa. Colling’s leadership approach is to drive change through developing and growing the employees and their skill sets, creating a ‘win-win’ culture and ensuring performance excellence and efficiencies are achieved by having the best team and most effective fleet mix. Leading the team to succeed in becoming the employer of choice, and building the Company to be the best globally! Creating a ‘win-win’ culture involves changing the way we think, work and behave to combine, expertise and experience, in an instinctively global perspective with a genuinely multicultural approach, enabled by collaborative relationships and partnerships that will yield practical, innovative solutions.

María Soledad Cordova is a high-energy diplomat with 25 years of experience in diplomatic services. Organized and diligent with excellent interpersonal communication skills, she is dedicated to successfully performing my duties as the Ambassador of Ecuador to South Africa . María graduated from the Catholic University of Ecuador with a degree in Law and a Masters in International Relations and Diplomacy. She previously served the embassies in London, Lima and Brussels.

Steven Curtis is a Chartered Accountant with over 35 years of experience and has held a number of senior financial positions in the manufacturing industry. Before joining Caledonia in April 2006, he was Director Finance and Supply Chain for Avery Dennison SA and, prior to this, Financial Director and then Managing Director of Jackstadt GmbH South African operation. Steven is a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants and graduated from the University of Cape Town. Steven was appointed Vice-President Finance and Chief Financial Officer in April 2006 and served in the position until December 2014 when he was appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer.

Sarel Aliva Daantjie resigned from Anglo Platinum at the end of 2005 to start Mvelo in 2006. It was the first wholly owned Black company painting & cleaning projects for Anglo Platinum and Glencore. In 2010, Mvelo received its first big breakthrough at Anglo Platinum’s Amandelbult Concentrator where it awarded a Plant Cleaning contract with employee as local people. In 2012, Lonmin’s Supply, Chain and Enterprise Development gave Mvelo a second major breakthrough by awarding it an underground mining contract. During the aftermath of the Marikana Massacre, Tshediso and management (Lonmin Vice President Mining) took the risk to support and gave Mvelo an opportunity to start core mining as one of the black GLCcompony today. Mvelo is currently mining for Pandora (Joint Venture between Anglo Platinum and Lonmin) and employs in excess of 500 workers. To date Mvelo is a Member of SA chamber of mine and lost interest, platinum, mining chrome, coal nickel and other minerals

Kieran Daly joined UBS as Co-Head EMEA Metals & Mining research in September 2015 and has been covering the SA mining sector as a top-rated analyst since 2007. Kieran, a mining engineer, previously spent 15 years working for Anglo American plc in its Coal Division where he had a number of roles in operations, commercial, business development and strategy.

Heye is a Namibian mining engineer with an impressive 25-year track record with top-tier companies across the mining value chain. After building and operating mines with Rio Tinto, AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields early in his career, he joined the finance sector working for Nedbank Capital and Old Mutual Investment Group. Heye is the co-founder of the former Auryx Gold Corp. which advanced the Otjikoto gold project in Namibia until selling to B2 Gold Corp for US$160m in 2011. As the former President & CEO of Ecuador Gold & Copper Corp. (“EGX”), Heye was instrumental in the formation of Lumina Gold Corp. through the C$200m merger of EGX with Odin Mining, before founding Osino Resources in 2015.

Brandon joined Gem Diamonds in 2007 from Clifford Chance LLP. Practising in New York and London, he specialised in debt and equity capital markets and corporate finance, gaining extensive commercial and legal experience in international corporate and finance transactions, stock exchange listings in London, Luxembourg and New York and in the UKLA (UK) and SEC (USA) rules and regulations. At Gem Diamonds, Brandon has been responsible for numerous corporate and financial transactions. He was head of the Group’s Sales, Marketing and Manufacturing division from 2013 to 2017, when he was appointed as the Group Business Transformation Officer. In 2019 Brandon was appointed as the Group Operations and Business Transformation Executive and in 2021 as Chief Operating Officer.

Henk de Hoop holds an MSc in Mining Engineering from the University of Delft, Netherlands, and he is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He started his career as a Graduate Mining Engineer at Goldfields of South Africa, followed by 2 years at Sasol as an Explosives Engineer. He spent the next 12 years as a Mining Analyst working for several broking firms, covering gold, diamond, coal, diversified, platinum and junior mining stocks. He was rated the top platinum analyst by the Financial Mail from 2005-2007. He joined Rand Merchant Bank in 2008, and is responsible for business development for the bank’s Resources industry clients, covering equity, debt, debt capital markets, M&A, global markets and corporate banking.

Paul de Kock obtained his BSc and BSC (Hons) degrees from the University of Natal and completed the Advanced Management Programme (MAP) at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Paul has 25 years of experience in the development and implementation of integrated management systems in a variety of sectors including mining, energy, petrochemical, logistics and financial services. Paul’s specific areas of specialisation include integrated Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) systems, Enterprise Risk, Compliance and HSE. Paul has worked across Africa, and is well versed in the complexities of GRC within the mining industry.
Paul is a visionary in the field of GRC management systems. He developed the first version of IsoMetrix, for environmental management, in 1996 and founded Metrix Software Solutions in 2002. The company has grown to become a major player internationally, and now offers software solutions in all areas of GRC, with a focus on Health, Safety and Environment (EHS), Quality, Enterprise Risk and Governance, Compliance, Sustainability, Social Management, Occupational Health and Hygiene, Primary Healthcare & Wellness and Food Safety. Metrix also has offices in Perth, Toronto and Atlanta.

Lyndon obtained a BSc Hons in Geology/Oceanography from the University of Port Elizabeth in 1990 and an MSc in Oceanography from the same institution in 1994. From 1993-1995, he managed several exploration programmes for kimberlites and alluvial deposits for De Beers Geology in Kimberley and went on to become a Manager: Sample Treatment Laboratory from 1995-1997. He worked as a Manager: Land Based Operations for Moonstone Diamond Corporation N.L. from 1997-1998. He then went on to become the Operations Manager at GEM Diamond Mining Corporation (which merged with Trans Hex in 2000) from 1998-2000.

He worked as a Geological Consultant at Paleostone Mineral Consultants from 2000-2007, then became the Chief Geologist at Manhattan Operations Douglas from 2007-2009, before becoming the Chief Operations Officer and a Director at Manhattan Africa from 2009-2013. Since 2013 he has been Consultant and Owner of Paleostone Mining, which mines alluvial diamonds along the Orange and Riet Rivers. His experience includes kimberlite and alluvial diamond exploration and evaluation programme design, heavy mineral separation techniques, design of diamond recovery plants, target selection, technical audits and financial analysis and modelling of primary and secondary diamond projects and mines. He has worked in Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Australia and Canada. He is registered as Professional Natural Scientist and is Deputy Chairman of the South African Diamond Producers Organisation (SADPO).

Chris de Vries is Managing Director of minerals corporate advisory firm Venmyn Deloitte. He is a qualified CA(SA) and competent mineral asset valuator, having served as an associate director at Deloitte’s Corporate Finance division in Johannesburg.
Chris has 8+ years’ experience in conducting due diligence reviews, valuations, impairment reviews, business plan validation and corporate advisory assignments in the minerals industry. His experience includes a wide range of mining transactions, IPO projects and corporate recovery projects covering commodities such as coal, gold, platinum, nickel, chrome, uranium, copper and industrial minerals. This included operational, development and exploration assets as well as tailings retreatment operations and assets under care-and-maintenance.
Recently, Chris led the care-and-maintenance and successful M&A process in the provisional liquidation of a leading copper producer in Botswana.
Chris led the Venmyn Deloitte technical team that supported UK banks in the restructuring of Lonmin Plc’s balance sheet in November 2015.

Michiel (Mike) de Wit obtained a BA (Hons) degree from Trinity College, Dublin in Geology in 1975 and MSc degrees in Geophysics and Sedimentology from the Universities of Pretoria (1981) and Reading (1983) respectively. He completed a PhD in Geology from the University of Cape Town in 1993. He started his career with the Geological Survey of SA in 1976 where he spent two years in geophysical applications over alluvial diamond deposits. During the following 29 years he was employed by De Beers in diamond exploration and research, became General Manager-Africa Exploration responsible for the discovery and evaluation of kimberlites in Africa before moving to the DRC in 2004 for De Beers as General Manager-DRC. Besides formulating and managing exploration programmes, other responsibilities included strategy, security of tenure, budgets, manpower, joint ventures and SHE. In 2007 he joined Canadian junior explorer Delrand Resources (Pty) Ltd (formerly BRC-DiamondCore (Pty) Ltd) as President and CEO, continuing with the exploration and evaluation of diamond deposits in the DRC and South Africa. From 2010 to 2019 he worked for Tsodilo Resources Ltd as President and COO where he became involved with diamond and base-metal exploration in Botswana. In 2007 he was appointed as Honorary Professor at the Geology Department of the University of Pretoria until 2017.

Ferdi started his career with Gencor, which later became Gengold in 1982, and has been involved in various roles and executive positions in the gold mining industry for 35 years. After spending time at Buffels, Weltevreden and Beatrix, he left Gengold and joined Rand Mines as MD of ERPM, Cons Modder and Grootvlei before the latter was acquired by Harmony. On leaving Harmony he joined Canadian junior Great Basin Gold and later Village Main Reef, both as CEO. Following the sale of Village Main Reef in 2015 Ferdi has been involved in the mining industry in various roles, commodities and projects.

Johan Dippenaar has 25 years’ experience in the leadership and management of diamond mining companies. Prior to his appointment as CEO of Petra, he was CEO of ASX-quoted Crown Diamonds, which merged with Petra in 2005. Since the merger, Mr. Dippenaar has led Petra through a period of significant growth, taking the Company’s annual production from circa 175,000 carats in FY 2006 to 3.2 million carats in FY 2015, and establishing the Company as a leading independent producer. Mr. Dippenaar is a Chartered Accountant by profession and a member of the Chartered Accountants of South Africa.

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma is the Chairperson of the African Union. She was the South African Minister of the Department of Home Affairs. She is a Member of the African National Congress National Executive Committee and National Working Committee. She is also a Member of the African National Congress Women's League National Executive Committee and the National Progressive Women's Movement of South Africa. 

Caroline Donally is a Managing Partner at Sprott Private Resource Streaming and Royalty, where she is responsible for all aspects of the business.  She has over 25 years of experience and has worked in numerous countries, including across Africa, North and South America in a variety of commodities covering precious metals, base metals, bulks and specialty metals.  She has served on various boards and audit committees of international companies involved in exploration, construction and operations.   Before joining Sprott, she was a Managing Director at Denham Capital and responsible for North and South America and Africa, which included Denham's successful investment into JDS Silver which Coeur Mining acquired for $250m. Before Denham, Caroline was a project and corporate finance banker with Rand Merchant Bank and Investec Limited (South Africa) where she was involved in numerous structured cross-border financings and investments. She is a Chartered Accountant and has twice been named as one of the “100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining”.

Xia Dong (Jeff) is an Executive Director of Heaven-Sent Capital Group (‘HSC’), and is currently is responsible for HSC’s mineral resources sector. He serves as a non-executive director of Village Main Reef (VMR) and Lesego Platinum, two South Africa mining entities that HSC acquired in 2015. Jeff is an experienced professional in China’s outbound mining investment sector. He started his career in China’s largest state-owned diversified investment holding group CITIC, as a financial accountant. Jeff has experience in both buy and sell-side M&A advisory, focusing on China’s outbound investment in mineral resources (especially in Southern Africa and Australia), as well as having participated in the establishment of a mining private equity business, funded by prominent Chinese groups from both private and state-owed sectors. Jeff holds a B. Admin in Financial Management from University of International Business and Economics, China.

Denver Dreyer is a vibrant executive with 20+ years of strategic business development and operational experience in the chemicals, infrastructure, power and hydrocarbons sectors in sub-Saharan Africa. Denver completed a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cape Town in 1997. In 2006 Denver joined Kwezi V3 Engineers as an electrical engineer, which was acquired by WorleyParsons RSA in 2011. He has held a number of roles at WorleyParsons RSA including the Customer Sector Group Manager: Minerals & Metals and Chief Operations Officer before being appointed as the CEO in April 2016. Denver is currently the Senior Vice President MM&M EMEA for Worley (previously WorleyParsons) and is responsible for Mining, Minerals & Metals for Europe, Middle East and Africa.  He is passionate about the meaningful and sustainable transformation of engineering in South Africa and is part of a team that shares this same commitment within Worley. Denver is also at the forefront of driving digital transformation in the industry. Denver is registered as a Professional Engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa, and is a member of the Institute of Directors, and the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers.

Morne is a Chartered Accountant with an MBA from Heriott Watt University Edinburgh, Scotland. He has extensive experience in the mining industry, having been Chief Financial Officer of several groups including contract mining and beneficiation service provider Genet SA, junior coal miner Umcebo Mining Group and Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed junior coal miner Wescoal Holdings limited. Morne was appointed to the Board of Directors of Minergy in January 2017 and as its Chief Financial Officer in February 2017. He has solid experience in the workings of listed companies in South Africa and in Botswana as well as expertise spanning coal mining, trading and the various financial aspects thereof. 

A Corporate Finance and Banking Professional with over 15 years of local and international experience across various industry sectors.
Prior to joining PwC Corporate Finance on 1 June 2014, Craig was a Managing Director in the Leveraged Finance (Africa) team at Standard Chartered Bank. Previously he was Principal and Head of the Global Loans Structuring and Execution team at Absa Capital (part of Barclays Africa Group Limited), and Head of Specialised Debt at Nedbank Limited.
Craig’s varied experience includes corporate finance and advisory, corporate restructuring and reorganisations, distressed debt and workouts, debt and equity capital advisory, and origination, structuring, negotiation, execution and distribution of numerous financing transactions (which include Black Economic Empowerment financing, structured equity financing, subordinated debt financing, securitisations, preference share financing, leveraged finance, acquisition finance, project finance, corporate term loans, capital expenditure loans, revolving credit facilities, general banking facilities, and working capital facilities) in both emerging and developed markets. He has sound knowledge of debt and equity markets, financial markets and transactional banking products and is thus able to advise on and structure holistic solutions for clients.
Craig is a Chartered Accountant (South Africa) and holds a B.Com (Accounting), B.Com Honours (Accounting) and Higher Diploma in Tax Law which were obtained from the University of Johannesburg.

Sandra started her career as an academic, lecturing company and tax law at the University of the Free State, before joining Johannesburg Law Firm Brink Cohen le Roux & Roodt. It was here that she became involved in the South African mining industry, working first on the labour side of the business, before moving on to the corporate and commercial end of practice. Sandra has been with Standard Bank for just over ten years and focuses exclusively on African corporate finance transactions in mining and metals.

Vusumuzi Dube is currently the Business Development Manager at the Mining and Metals Unit of the IDC. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Mining Engineering (Wits) and a Master of Business Administration (Gibs). After having spent a few years of production experience in the South African gold and platinum mines, he joined the IDC in 2008 as a Business Analyst in the Mining and Metals Unit. Vusumuzi has over 13 years’ experience in structuring funding for junior mining companies, BEE acquisition transactions and project finance in the mining space. In his current role, his primary function is deal origination and funding structuring for mining companies with economically viable projects or operations, both in South Africa and in the rest of the African continent.

Richard Duffy was appointed CEO of Petra Diamonds Limited in April 2019.  He leads the management of the company, implements the agreed strategy and runs the business on a day-to-day basis. He has 27 years of global mining industry experience, initially with Anglo American plc and then AngloGold Ashanti Limited from its inception in 1998. In 2008 he was appointed Executive Vice President, Africa Region and continued in this role until January 2010 when he took charge of the continental Africa region, with operations in Namibia, Tanzania, Guinea, Ghana and Mali and a joint venture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2013 he was appointed Chief Financial Officer with direct responsibility for all financial matters including the formulation and execution of financial business strategy, debt and equity financing. In 2015 Richard became a Co-Founder and Director of Africa Energy Management Platform, a private energy company targeting industrial and mining clients in sub-Saharan Africa. Richard holds a B.Com degree from the University of the Witwatersrand and an MBA from Henley Management College in the UK.

Alugumi Dzebu is the Senior Investment Manager for Anglo American’s enterprise development arm, Zimele’s Partnership Funds, and his responsibilities include managing the Anglo American sefa Mining Fund, which focusses on promoting mining-related investments in the junior mining space. A qualified geologist by profession, Alugumi has an Honours Degree and a Graduate Diploma in Engineering, obtained in 2001 and 2010 respectively, from the University of the Witwatersrand. He has extensive and diverse knowledge of the mining industry spanning from exploration, operational experience and funding. He has worked on a number of mining finance transactions both locally and internationally across multiple commodities. Alugumi also sits as a non-executive director on a number of mining companies.

Schalk Engelbrecht is the Finance Executive and a Director of Platinum Group Metals (RSA) (Pty) Ltd.  He holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of the Free State Business School (2005) and a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) from the University of South Africa (1996). Schalk has over 28 years’ experience in the South African mining and minerals industry.  His experience base includes holding senior financial management and leadership roles in De Beers Group, SouthernEra Resources Ltd and Lonmin Plc.  He joined Platinum Group Metals Ltd as Financial Manager in 2013.  He has direct experience in business processes, financial modelling and analysis, shared services, contract management, management accounting, feasibility studies and due diligence.  He is a strong finance and business administration professional with solid mining and processing technical knowledge.

Anton holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) (Pretoria) and Master of Science (Mineral Exploration), with distinction (Rhodes).  He received the Dreyer Award by the Society for Mining Metallurgy and Exploration Inc. (USA) for outstanding achievements in applied economic geology and was the first recipient of the Des Pretorius Memorial Award for outstanding work in economic geology by the Geological Society of South Africa. Anton has had a successful exploration career spanning more than 40 years in industrial minerals, coal, diamonds, base and precious metals, highlighted by discoveries of several world class deposits. In 1973 he commenced his career with Gold Fields of South Africa and in 1987 was a founder member of Pangea Exploration.  While with Pangea he was instrumental in the discoveries of the high grade Rhovan vanadium deposit, the Taaiboschspruit colliery, the Hillendale-Fairbreeze mineral sand deposits and the re-evaluation of the 16 million-ounce Burnstone gold deposit, all in South Africa.  In Tanzania he was responsible for the discovery of several gold deposits such as Tulawaka, Buzwagi and Golden Ridge, with his activities attracting major players into that country.  He was also responsible for the discovery of five titanium-zircon mineral sand deposits along the East African coast including the Corridor Sands ilmenite and Kwale rutile and zircon deposits. Now a director of PanEx Resources, he has generated a number of diamond and base metal projects throughout Africa and has worked on the development of rare earth, niobium and tin deposits. 

Nolitha Fakude serves as the Chairman of Anglo American’s Management Board: South Africa as well as a Group Director of Anglo American plc and President of the Minerals Council South Africa. Nolitha served as a non-executive director of the Board of Anglo American plc from April 2017 to August 2019. Fakude has worked in and held senior positions in various industries and sectors including Retail, Management Consulting, Financial Services, Mining and Oil and Gas. Until 2016, Nolitha served as an Executive Director at Sasol Limited as Executive Vice President of Strategy and Sustainability. Nolitha was elected as the first woman President of the Black Management Forum (2003-2006) and its Managing Director and she now serves as the Chairperson of the Council of Elders. Nolitha is the Vice President of the Minerals Council, Non-Executive Director of JSE Limited, Discovery Bank Holdings and International Woman’s Forum South Africa (IWFSA). She is a Patron of Guild Cottage home for girls. Her previous board roles include serving as Deputy Chair and Lead Independent Director of Datacentrix Holdings Limited, and as a non-executive director of Harmony Gold and Woolworths Holdings among others. Nolitha’s honorary accolated include the 2004 Most Influential Businesswoman by Financial Mail, Impala Platinum Young Entrepreneur Award and the National Honor by the Golden Key Society and University of Johannesburg. Nolitha is an author of a book titled, “Boardroom Dancing”, published in 2019.She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree in Psychology from the University of Fort Hare and completed the Senior Executive Programme at Harvard Business School in the United States.

Professor Rosemary Falcon recently retired as DST NRF SARChI Chair of Clean Coal Technology and is now Professor Emeritus at Wits in the Engineering Faculty. 

She has been involved in coal for over 40 years, in corporate, consulting, academic and research positions.  She graduated with a PhD from Wits followed by advanced training in coal science and technology for trade and utilisation at the Berbau Forschung in Germany and the National Coal Board in the UK.  She established a coal research group in Wits in the late 1970s followed by her own consulting and research company where she working with industry for the following 20 years.

After a brief spell as Programme Manager at the CSIR (Enertek) and three years in the Eskom Research Facility in Rosherville, she joined Wits once again in the late 1990s.  From that time she has  led fundamental and applied coal research in the Faculty of Engineering, supervised over 80 doctoral and Masters students and taught coal science and technology to over 2 000 industrial personnel and postgraduate students for application in a broad spectrum of industries.  

She has received a number of national and international awards, has written over 80 publications, co-authored two books, contributed to a number of other books and produced more than 2000 technical reports on applied industrial investigations, research and development.  

She attended meetings in the UN-ECE Coal Working Groups in Geneva as the South African technical representative for several years, was Chairman of the Steering Committee for the Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage of South Africa for a period and is currently Director of the Fossil Fuel Foundation of SA.  She now consults to industry, is an expert witness in various coal-related legal matters and is promoting clean coal technologies and policies specifically applicable to Southern African coals and conditions.

Bruce is currently a founder and director of corporate law firm, Falcon & Hume Inc. Bruce completed his legal articles with Brink Cohen Le Roux Inc, and was admitted as an attorney of the High Court in 1996. After a brief period working in mining corporate finance in London, Bruce spent 4 years with the Energy, Resources and Infrastructure group of Allens Arthur Robinson in Melbourne, Australia. On returning to South Africa in 2002, Bruce established his own legal practice. Since then he has been involved in a number of significant corporate and resources transactions and has developed and maintained several close client relationships.  These clients include Australian, English and Canadian listed exploration and mining companies, corporate finance firms and several emerging and established South African Black Economic Empowerment firms. Bruce graduated with B Comm and LLB degrees from Wits University and an LLM (Corporate and Resources Law) from Melbourne University, Australia. Bruce is also admitted as a solicitor and barrister in Victoria, Australia and the High Court of Australia.

Dr. Kayode Fayemi is the Minister of Solid Minerals Development in the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He has the mandate of Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari to reposition the Nigerian Mining sector to contribute optimally to the administration’s priority agendas of diversifying the country’s revenue base and creating jobs and economic opportunities for Nigerians. He is also the chairman of the governing board of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI). He was formerly the Governor of Ekiti State in Southwest Nigeria (2010 – 2014).

He holds degrees in History and International Relations from the University of Lagos and Obafemi Awolowo University respectively, a Doctorate in War Studies from King’s College, University of London and is a Fellow of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Ibadan. His research and policy development interests include: Democratisation, Constitutionalism, Security Sector Governance, Civil-Military Relations and Regionalism in the Global Context. Amongst other academic and public policy engagements at home and abroad, Dr. Fayemi has lectured in Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia. He has also served as an adviser on Transitional Justice, Regional Integration, Constitutionalism, Security Sector Reforms and Civil-Military Relations to various governments, multilateral institutions and development agencies.

Dr. Fayemi was the founding director of the Centre for Democracy & Development, a research and training institute dedicated to the study and promotion of democratic development, peace-building and human security in Africa. As a central figure in the coalition of civil society actors that resisted oppressive military rule in Nigeria, he was instrumental to the founding and running of opposition radio stations while in exile. His role in the struggle to restore democratic governance in Nigeria is documented in his book Out of the Shadows: Exile and the Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in Nigeria (CDD, 2005). His other publications include: Mercenaries: The African Security Dilemma, co-edited with Abdel-Fatau Musah (Pluto Press, 2000); Deepening the Culture of Constitutionalism: The Role of Regional Institutions in Constitutional Development in Africa (CDD, 2003); and Security Sector Governance in Africa: A Handbook (co-edited with Nicole Ball, CDD, 2004); Reclaiming the Trust (Amandla, 2012); Regaining the Legacy (Amandla, 2013); and Legacy of Honour and Service (Amandla, 2014).

Dr. Fayemi is a prominent member of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in Nigeria and chaired the party's National Convention Planning Committee that conducted the transparent and credible Presidential Primary election that produced the party’s Presidential Candidate for the 2015 general election and now President. He also served as the Director, Policy Research and Strategy of the APC Presidential Campaign Council. He has received several awards and recognitions at home and abroad, and holds the national honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON).

Johan Ferreira has 35 years of experience in the mining industry. His experience includes strategic executive leadership roles together with a managerial execution track record of  global/international assignments. Over and above his leadership and rigorous operational experience, his areas of expertise include: mine design, project management, the turning around of businesses/ operations and commissioning of mining projects. Johan started his mining career in 1986 with Anglo American as a Learner Official and progressed to the level of Senior Vice President Operations - South Africa Region, which later operated as AngloGold Ashanti. Prior to joining Khoemacau, Johan was the Regional Senior Vice President - Africa Region for Newmont, based in Ghana. During his four-year tenure with Newmont, he had many successes. Apart from dealing with complex internal and external stakeholder relationships, infrastructure challenges and new project development, Ghana was one of Newmont’s top performing operating divisions under Johan’s leadership. In addition to his career, he also led the Association of Mine Managers of South Africa as President as well as the President of the Ghana Chamber of Mines and served as Director on various Boards. Johan holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Mining) degree from the University of Pretoria and is a qualified and registered Professional Engineer. Johan assumed the role as CEO of the Cupric group, which owns and operates Khoemacau, in October 2018.

Pierre Fourie has an extensive career of over 30 years as a Mining Engineer and Chief Executive Officer in the areas of mining, information technology and corporate development.  His specific skills include business development; business optimisation and strategy; people management and development; mineral economics; mine optimisation, construction and operation; programming; IT infrastructure; resource/reserve estimation and financial modelling.  Pierre worked for Anglo American as Mining Engineer and then started an engineering consulting company which he expanded from Johannesburg, South Africa to London, UK, Perth, Australia, Vancouver, Canada and Santiago, Chile.  After selling his consulting company, he acted as CEO of engineering firm DRA Americas and then Head of Mining for Namakwa Diamonds.  In his role as CEO he managed a reverse takeover and subsequent London listing of GS Technologies Ltd, an information and telecommunication infrastructure company.  Pierre is currently the Head of Strategy and Planning for Namakwa Diamonds. In addition to his career experience, Pierre holds BEng(mining) and BCompt degrees.  Pierre is a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM).

Neal Froneman was appointed an executive director and CEO of Sibanye on 1 January 2013. He has over 30 years of relevant operational, corporate development and mining industry experience. He was appointed CEO of Aflease Gold Limited (Aflease Gold) in April 2003. Aflease Gold, through a series of reverse takeovers, became Gold One in May 2009. Neal was primarily responsible for the creation of Uranium One Inc. (Uranium One) from the Aflease Gold uranium assets. During this period, he was CEO of both Aflease Gold and Uranium One until his resignation from Uranium One in February 2008. Prior to joining Aflease Gold, Neal held executive and senior management positions at Gold Fields of South Africa Limited, Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited (Harmony) and JCI Limited.

Justin Froneman is the Senior Vice President: Finance, Sibanye Platinum, having joined Sibanye in September 2015. Prior to joining Sibanye, Justin was a Director in the Investment Banking division of Credit Suisse, based in South Africa. He was head of SA mining, being principally responsible for global precious metals equities and commodities coverage. Before Credit Suisse he was a director at Standard Bank Group Securities (SBGS) and Macquarie for three years and six years respectively. He has been consistently recognised as a top rated mining analyst locally and internationally and has been actively involved in numerous mining equity capital market transactions including IPOs, capital raises and debt funding deals. He was shortlisted for the global Mining Analyst of the Year award in 2013. Justin is a qualified CA(SA) having completed his articles in the mining division at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Johannesburg.

Dr Abdulrazaq Garba is the Director General of the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency. With a career spanning more than 30 years in the industry and specialising in mineral exploration and assessment, he has made contributions to efforts leading to a number of discoveries. He currently leads the ongoing National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project (NIMEP), which is an effort of the Government of Nigeria to rapidly derisk the mining space along some identified metallogenic belts. He has been actively involved in geological activities that have evolved into key publications and projects, such as the Geological Map of Nigeria, National Geochemical Mapping Technical Assistance Project. Dr Garba is a member of several societies and also a Fellow of the Geological Society of London and the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society.

Tim leverages over 30 years of experience in the mining and engineering sectors, with a broad range of experience in mining, construction, engineering and infrastructure project development throughout sub‐Saharan Africa. He holds an Honours degree in Minerals Engineering from Leeds University and spent over a decade in production management at several Anglo-American operations in Africa followed by directorships of several listed junior exploration entities. He has been involved in the plant design and feasibility studies of various base and precious metal projects of which the Pensana rare earths project in Angola is the latest.

Mark is an economist and experienced C-suite executive, having been Head of Equity Markets for Macquarie Bank Europe, Middle East and Africa before being appointed as the Deputy CEO of the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa Inc. Mark is currently the CEO of mining-focused law firm Nupen Staude de Vries Inc. Mark drove the acquisition and establishment of operations at the Middelvlei gold mine near Randfontein in the Witwatersrand Gold Field. He is a serial entrepreneur who believes that we are witnessing a significant secular shift in global capital allocation towards real assets that provides a unique investment opportunity for South Africa and its mining industry in particular.

Terence Goodlace’s mining career commenced in 1977 and has spanned more than 40 years. He spent the majority of this time at Gengold which merged with Gold Fields of South Africa to form Gold Fields Limited in 1998. Terence began as a miner and advanced through the ranks to become Chief Operating Officer in 2008. He gained experience in leading underground and open pit operations in South Africa, Australia, Ghana, Venezuela and Peru. For five years during this time he was responsible for creating, implementing and facilitating the strategic and operational planning processes and associated outcomes for all Group operations. This included executive responsibility for Group Mineral Resource Management, Environmental Management and Sustainable Development. He also spent two years in Corporate Finance.

Terence subsequently spent three years as the Chief Executive Officer of Metorex Limited, which was a debt-challenged, mid-tier, multi-commodity (fluorspar, antimony, gold, copper, cobalt) mining company with operations in South Africa, Zambia and the DRC. He transformed the company to become a focused copper cobalt company that was acquired and de-listed by Jinchuan, a major Chinese nickel mining company.

Terence served on the Impala Platinum Holdings Limited board for six and a half years with two years as an independent non-executive director and four and a half years as the Chief Executive Officer. He is currently an independent non-executive director at Gold Fields Limited, Kumba Iron Ore Limited and AfriTin Mining Limited. In 2017, he was appointed onto the South African Mining Extraction Research, Development and Innovation steering committee which has been set up to advance new mining technologies under the auspices of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

Jerome was appointed Managing Director of Moolmans in April 2019. He has more than 25 years’ experience in the mining, engineering and construction industry with solid experience in both local and international environments. Jerome’s initial focus at Moolmans was returning the business to profitability which was successfully achieved. His current focus is building sustainable growth at Moolmans. Jerome was previously Chief Executive Officer of the Cross Yarra Partnership Project Company, an approximately AUD6 billion private public partnership (PPP) rail project in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to that, Jerome spent 15 years of his career with JSE-listed Murray & Roberts Group where he served the company in various roles including as CEO of the Murray & Roberts Construction Platform and CEO of the Bombela Concession Company responsible for delivering the Gautrain in time for the Soccer World Cup. Jerome holds a BSc in Quantity Surveying and an MSc from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and an MBA from Wits Business School. He has also completed executive development programmes at both Harvard Business School and NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Harry Greaves is a fourth generation Zimbabwean. He holds a B.Sc (agriculture) from the University of Natal in South Africa. He is the founding shareholder of Farvic Consolidated Mines (Pvt) Ltd which operates the Prince Olaf, Farvic and Nicolson gold mines in southern Zimbabwe, all of which he brought back into production over the last 10 years including the design and construction of two milling facilities. He was also the driving force behind the acquisition of the Penhalonga Gold Project and the Bushtick Gold Project. He is a well-respected and well-known member of the Zimbabwe mining fraternity.

Noah Greenhill is responsible for building and growing the investor relations practice at H+K South Africa.  He was responsible for the establishment of AltX at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and was the Chief Marketing Officer of the JSE for a period of six years of his 12 year tenure there.  Whilst at the JSE, Noah introduced a culture of business development and client relationship.  Subsequent to the JSE, Noah spent two and a half years as Head of Corporate Finance at Sasfin Capital and thereafter two years as CEO of the Bakgatla Ba Kgafela Investment Holding Company.  This experience has given Noah the ability to view solutions for challenges in a creative client oriented manner.  Noah has been involved in interactions bringing investors and companies together for 15 years.

Alex Hanly has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration. Alex is experienced in capital delivery and operational management for publicly-listed companies within the mining, oil & gas and manufacturing industries throughout Australia. He has led schedule-dependent delivery of sustenance and growth capital spend through a process-orientated management approach.

Clare Hanna joined CRU in August 2019 and currently works as a Senior Analyst covering Manganese Ore and Ferroalloys and is Editor of the Bulk Ferroalloys Monitor. Clare has over 30 years’ experience in the steel industry with British Steel, Tata Steel and Corus in a range of strategy, sales, marketing and procurement roles. Recent responsibilities include business development for wire rod and, prior to that, lead buyer ferroalloys for Tata Steel Group. Clare holds an MBA from Warwick Business School and BA Honours degree in Economics from Leeds University.

A commentator on market and economic issues, Chris shares his views on South African and international events. He writes regularly for InvestSA, an intermediary publication, and is a sought-after speaker at conferences across industries and business sectors for his views on economic and market issues.

Tony Harwood is an economic geologist with 30 years of international exploration and mining experience. He graduated from University of Wales, Cardiff, UK with a B.Sc. (Hons) and Ph.D in Economic Geology.  Tony is President and CEO of TSXV Montero Mining & Exploration since 2009.  Between 2006 and 2009, he was the President and CEO of TSX Africo Resources Ltd. and between 1998 and 2006 served as a Vice President Global Generative Exploration at Placer Dome Inc., a major Canadian gold mining company. Other positions include Executive Chairman of ASX listed Universal Coal PLC, Non-Executive Director of Adamus Resources (ASX), Endeavour Mining (ASX/TSX), Auryx Gold Corp. (TSXV), East African Metals (TSXV), African Gold Group (TSXV), Tesoro Resources (TSXV) and Lappland Goldminers (Nordic). He has listed 3 public companies in the last 10 years on the TSX and ASX. Founder and MD of Harwood International Ltd., a geological consulting company, and held a position as a lecturer - University of Wales, Cardiff (UK), University of Natal, Durban (South Africa).

Shirley Hayes is one of the first women in South Africa to have qualified for a blasting certificate. She has extensive experience of surface mining and blasting, having run her own quarrying business for several years. She was the first woman to have identified the Northern Cape region as a major copper exploration area. She has invested her own capital to develop the Concordia tenament covering 36 000 hectares of the most prospective copper targets in the area. Currently she is in the process of developing two major copper mines in the area in addition to having discovered a copper ore-body similar in size to the historical Carolusberg orebody where some 411,435 tons of copper (26Mt @ 1,54% Cu) was mined. She has a clear vision for the area and is planning to develop it in to one of the largest copper producing districts in the world.

May works independently as a part-time academic, board director and a consultant (in research and advisory capacities). Recently, she has been involved in the establishment of the Tshiamiso Trust (which arises out of a court settlement on silicosis and TB in 2018). May also serves as the Chairperson of the Trust’s board. Other boards she serves on are the Aveng and Alexkor boards. She is the lead independent director of the former and a recent appointee of the latter. May has led, managed and worked directly in multifaceted programmes and portfolios (served in executive roles; conducted research; published papers; developed and delivered training courses; run a mine health and safety regulator; worked in the trade union movement; supported the development of trade unions; and over the years served on several boards, mainly the public and not-for-profit sector). The organisations in which she has worked include the NUM in the1980s, Samancor (OHS lead), DME (Chief Inspector Mines), Centre for Sustainability in Mining and Industry at Wits (Director) and the CSIR (head of Natural Resources and the Environment). In mining, around which much of her work has been orientated, May has been concerned with the health and safety of miners, the sector’s impact on the environment and communities, the regulation of the sector, its structure and composition both formal and informal and the positioning of the sector for inclusivity and sustainable development. 

Ahmed Hertani is the Founder and majority shareholder of Suricate Minerals and SCIM - two exploration companies  focused on exploration in alkaline intrusion for green tech metals, including lithium, REE and HG gold. Prior to this, he founded and managed an international trading company with a high turnover for 10 years. He has also founded and managed a company focused on  Internet/information services in Paris. Ahmed’s qualifications include a Master of Business Administration from the UK.

Kevin specialises in sourcing developing and funding feasibility studies and equity transactions in the mining sector. He leads the teams of financing, technical and legal professionals that assess the investment cases in development projects. Kevin also has extensive experience in project finance and subordinated mezzanine capital instruments.

Kevin Hodges has a B.Sc. Hons degree in Geology and has 35 years’ experience in the mining industry. He has spent the last 20 years working at the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa involved in the financing and development of mining ventures. His previous experience was in managing exploration programmes in the mining and oil and gas sectors.

Alistair Hodgkinson is the Chief Operating Officer for DRA Global. Alistair joined DRA in 2007 and built up his 25 years of industry experience through his involvement in large scale mining and minerals processing projects across EMEA and implementing various greenfields and brownfields resources projects.  In his current role, Alistair is responsible for managing the operations and delivery of DRA’s diverse projects portfolio. Alistair completed his B.Sc. Eng (Mechanical) at the University of the Witwatersrand, holds an MBA from the University of Cape Town and is a registered professional engineer. 

For the past twenty years Lance has developed a broad range of experience in emerging companies where he has played key roles as both an early employee and as a founder. Lance is a named inventor and has been intimately involved with the product development, business development and sales and marketing of several commercially successful innovations including the world’s first interbank email money transfer service. For the last decade Lance has held senior corporate positions and served as a director with private and public mining companies working in Canada, Peru, Afghanistan and the DRC.

Mr Hosack is a third-generation Zimbabwean with 18 years’ experience in mining and project development spanning numerous jurisdictions such as North and Southern Africa, Europe, Australia and Central America. For the past 12 years he was employed by First Quantum Minerals Ltd, primarily in their Projects team, where he most recently project managed the building of a port (coal offloading and copper loading), a 120km 230kV transmission line and a 300MW coal-fired power station for the Minera Panama Project in Panama. He holds a Bachelors Engineering Degree (Hons) from Essex University in UK, a MBA from Ashcroft Business School (UK) and respective professional registrations.

Ben is a geologist with over 15 years experience in the exploration and mining industry. Graduating with a degree in geology from the University of Otago in 1994, he has since held exploration and development roles in a variety of terrains including the Archaean Greenstone belts of Western Australia, Proterozoic gold and base metal systems in Zambia, porphyry gold-copper deposits in the Romanian Carpathians and Ordovician orogenic mesothermal gold mineralisation in New Zealand's South Island. Ben has worked for various companies including Oceana Gold, RSG Global, Katanga Resources, Hill 50 Gold and Herald Resources. Ben joined Baobab Resources plc as Exploration Manager in 2006, joined the board as Technical Director in 2008 and assumed the role of Managing Director in 2009.

George is a mining industry professional and qualified extraction metallurgist with 28 years of industry experience. For the last 22 years he has held various operational leadership, business development and executive roles in Australia and Africa. He is currently the CEO for Stonewall Mining and is also an executive director for the company and its local subsidiaries. George has been involved in the construction of new and brownfield sites in South Africa and Australia in addition to holding operational management roles with companies like JCI, Anglo Coal, Grinaker LTA and Vale.

Cecilia is Sales Director and Chief Sales Officer at IsoMetrix. She is fluent in four languages, has a Masters in Administration Science from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina and is member of the Institute of Directors of Southern Africa (IoDSA). She is a past member of the Ethics Institute of SA and Businesswoman Association of South Africa. She is a GRC professional with over 25 years’ experience, gained in a variety of senior and executive positions in blue chips including Arthur Andersen, IBM and Standard Bank, as well as in private mid-sized companies. Cecilia has a deep passion for and understanding of corporate governance and sustainability. She is a co-founder of the CGF Research Institute (Pty) Ltd, where she served as a Director, and served on the Board of FIHRST Management Services, a joint venture between Standard Bank and Alexander Forbes. Cecilia assisted the IoDSA in launching its Governance Assessment Instrument for King III and has lectured on board duties in a variety of forums.

R. Michael Jones brings over 25 years of experience as a professional geological engineer and has been involved with the raising of over $1 billion for exploration, mining development and production. In addition to co-founding Platinum Group Metals Ltd., Michael was a founder of Glimmer Resources Inc. and was responsible for the discovery of the Glimmer Gold mine, now Blackfox, in Ontario. During a six-year tenure as President of Cathedral Gold Corp., Mr. Jones ran a producing gold mining company and was involved in the review of a feasibility study and financing for the $1 billion Diavik Mine project during two years as Vice President with Aber Resources. Michael was a co-founder and director of West Timmins Mining that was purchased by producing company Lake Shore Gold Corp. in 2009 and was a co-founder and former director until 2012 of MAG Silver Corp. He is a Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of West Kirkland Mining Inc. and a director of Nextraction Energy Corp. Michael served on the Securities Policy Advisory Committee of the British Columbia Securities Commission for six years and holds a B.A.Sc. in geological engineering from the University of Toronto.

Ben joined CRU in October 2016. He has 10+ years experience working in commodity research and policy. During this time, he has both lead and contributed to energy and multi commodity projects relating to project finance, mergers, acquisitions and asset divestments, supply chain activities, and the impacts of public policies on both market and firm level economic and financial performance. Prior to joining CRU, Ben was a Principal Economist at BG Group responsible for leading macroeconomic and energy demand analysis and advising on strategic upstream investment decisions. He has previously worked at the International Monetary Fund and UK Treasury on energy and commodity related (as well as more general macro economic and fiscal) policy and research. Ben has an MPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Economics from the University of Birmingham. He has published widely on fiscal energy, and commodity related topics in leading international journals.

Christiaan Jordaan holds a B.Com Law degree which he obtained from the University of Pretoria. Additionally he also completed the following Registered Person’s examinations through the South African Institute of Financial Markets (SAIFM): Equity markets and Bond markets. Mr. Jordaan is a qualified Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) Compliance Officer. He started his career in financial services and has operated at senior management level until July 2011, specialising in risk management. Inspired by his special interest in private equity, commodities and corporate finance Mr. Jordaan co-founded the Regius Group to focus on transactions and projects in the mineral and energy sector. Mr. Jordaan is responsible for the day-to-day management of Regius Resources Group and specifically for all commercial aspects of the companies' projects in Mozambique.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done” – Nelson Mandela’s quote is an axiom that defines Boris’ career. That latest achievement has been the successful birth of Alphamin’s Bisie tin project. Boris is an accomplished senior business and investment executive. He has a passion for Africa and the varied opportunities it holds. His ability to identify potential, unlock opportunity and celebrate talent diversity adds significant value in the growing and competitive African business and mining environment. Boris graduated with an MBA from WITS Business School, University of Witwatersrand and a BSc (Civil Engineering) (cum laude) from the University of Cape Town - both times named on the Dean’s merit list. Boris is a Registered Professional Engineer with the SA Engineering Council and is a member of the SA Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

With a skillset spanning project finance, debt advisory, asset management, corporate recovery and turnarounds, Sascha is perfectly suited to supporting Noah’s Rule clients. His expertise across sectors including mining, metals, renewable energy and infrastructure enables him to identify and manage risk for a wide range of companies. Sascha’s ability to deliver great results for clients is founded on knowledge gained from over a 15-year career in executive roles at investment banking and trading groups including NM Rothschild and Sons (Australia) Limited and Mitsui. Based in Barcelona, Sascha is ideally located to take part in critical discussions and negotiations with financial institutions situated in key international banking hubs. Sascha holds an MBA from ESADE Business School in Spain, a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western Australia and a Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute.

Roger Key gained his BSc (Hons.) and PhD from the University of Liverpool in the period 1965 to 1972. Over the following 40 years he worked as a mapping geologist and research scientist throughout Africa producing over 300 peer-reviewed publications including numerous geological maps. Important parts of this work included the training of young African geologists, many of whom later became Directors of their national Geological Surveys, professors in local universities and leading professionals in mineral exploration companies. Between 2012 and 2016 he was an independent geological consultant for exploration companies throughout Africa on coal, gold and hydrocarbon projects as well as on regional geological mapping projects. Since 2016 he has been in charge of exploration at Kalahari Key Mineral Exploration Company (Pty) Ltd along the ENE-WSW Jwaneng-Makopong Shear/Feeder Zone through the Molopo Farms Complex in southern Botswana.

Paul Khosolo has twenty-three years experience in the mining industry, starting his career at Anglo American Corporation in 1994, and culminating in his appointment as the youngest mine overseer at Tau Lekoa Mine in 2000. He joined Harmony Mine as a Mine Overseer to gain experience in deep mining and steep stopes where he achieved the prestigious award of ‘Mine Overseer of the Year’. He proceeded to Goldfields to further his experience in deep mining, as well as overseeing the development section at the deepest shafts by that time. Paul joined Anglo Platinum in Limpopo in 2005 as a Mine Overseer where he was exposed to platinum operations. His peers in the industry regarded him as one of the best miners in the sector. He joined Samancor Chrome Mine as Mining Superintendent, thereafter being appointed Mine Manager in 2007 after he brought positive changes to the company’s mining operations, safety performance and effectiveness. He joined International Ferro Metals as Mining Contract Manager in 2008, managing both Underground and Opencasts operations. Paul was given an opportunity to establish a new Opencast Mine in Bapong Village called Sky Chrome Mine. He started the mine by negotiating with the community and ensured that once the agreements were reached, the site was fully established and operational. Under his leadership, he ensured that recruitment from the local community and the integration of those employees into the company was a smooth and successful process. In 2011, he established African Sun Mining Company (Pty) Ltd and became Managing Director of the company. He has a Metalliferous Mining (Mine Overseer) Certificate.

Robert holds a PhD in Geology from the University of the Witwatersrand. He is a Project Geologist for Jofema Mineral Resources and a Principal of PanEx Resources with a focus on the discovery, exploration and development of mines. Robert has worked on Greenstone-hosted gold in South Africa, Birimian-hosted gold in West Africa and IOCG-style mineralisation in South Africa and Zambia, as well as massive sulphide and stockwork-hosted gold and base metal deposits in Europe. In the Bushveld Complex in South Africa, he has worked on Merensky Reef and UG2 Reef- hosted platinum group metal (PGM) projects as well as Platreef-style disseminated platinum-nickel-copper deposits and on PGM projects in China. He also has experience in the search and development of both kimberlite-hosted and alluvial diamond deposits in several southern African countries.

Werner is the CEO of Goldplat Plc, an AIM-listed company with two market-leading operations in South Africa and Ghana focused on recovering gold and other precious metals from by-products, contaminated soil and other gold-bearing material from mining and other industries, providing an economic method for mines to dispose of waste materials while at the same time adhering to their environmental obligations. Werner qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte in South Africa in 2006 and joined Goldplat in 2015, and within his role he was integral in managing Goldplat’s financial and operational affairs. He was later appointed as Finance Director and in 2019 he was appointed CEO. Since his appointment as CEO, he has led the restructuring of the Group and has driven strategical change, disinvesting its mining portfolio and refocusing the Group on its core, profitable recovery operations. Before joining Goldplat, Werner gained audit and commercial experience in other industries.

Luke commenced his career in the mining sector in 1997 working as a Manager for New Projects with the Olympus Mining Group and Miranda Minerals Ltd. His activities saw him supervise mineral exploration projects in various countries in Africa and South America. Luke, was a founding member of Platmin Ltd and the COO of its South African operating subsidiary. His responsibilities included the acquisition of mineral rights, liaison with government regulatory bodies, environmental management, human resources, accounting, payroll and all other tasks involved with the day to day operations of the company and its administration.

Luke joined AMED Funds as a Director responsible for portfolio monitoring. Luke brings a wealth of experience in the management of exploration and development projects in Africa.

Shedrack Kombe is a Tanzanian mining entrepreneur. He is a member of the Federation of Miners Association in Tanzania (FEMATA) and has played a leading role in starting, establishing and developing multiple greenfield and brownfield mining projects with a junior mining company he co-founded. Some of the greenfield projects include Namtumbo columbite/titanium project, Kibulungutu Columbite/beryl project and Namtumbo precious metals project. The brownfield projects he is involved in currently are the Ibaga Copper/Zinc project and Singida Copper/Gold Project. He has also been involved in the establishment of a tin processing plant in Kyerwa tin fields in Tanzania. Shedrack is also the Chair of Dedun Resources Ltd, a certified metallic minerals trader. He is also the Vice Chair of the Singida Copper Miners Association.  

Michal Kotzé is the Africa Mining Industry Leader for PwC. He is also the business unit leader for our Energy, Utilities and Mining Assurance practice in Johannesburg. He is an experienced partner and has worked on many listed-client assignments as lead engagement partner. He has experience dealing with clients listed on the Johannesburg, London and Toronto Stock Exchanges (JSE, LSE & TSX). Michal has significant experience working with companies operating in Africa. Michal’s leadership skills were also recognised when he was selected to take part in PwC’s international leadership development program. As part of this program, Michal worked in India for a period of three months, during which time a road map was developed for the expansion of the largest eye care hospital in the world.

Lullu Krugel is the Chief Economist for PwC South Africa and a Partner in the strategy team. She leads a team of 17 economists, political analysts and regulatory specialists. Lullu and the team assist clients in understanding how the external economic and socio-economic environment might impact on their business, as well as how their own activities contribute to the creation of jobs, their total tax contributions and their contribution to GDP. In addition, Lullu and the team also assist clients in identifying investment opportunities and develop business strategies in particular for Africa expansion. Some of their past clients include, amongst others, ABInBev, SASOL, Vodacom, Naspers, Discovery, FNB and Standard Bank. Lullu is a regular commentator in the media and a frequent presenter at national and international conferences. She holds an M.Com Degree in Economics and Risk Management and post graduate diplomas in Energy Law, Competition Law, Economic Regulation and Regulatory Pricing.

Patrycja has been with the JSE for 10 years, of which most of this time has been spent focussing on positioning the JSE as an ideal listing destination. In her current role as Business Development Manager she is responsible for originating new equity listings for Main Board and Altx both locally and internationally. Prior to her role at the JSE, Patrycja worked in the financial sector in various positions. Her career started at Liberty as a financial advisor. She then began a business recovering international VAT and learnt a number of important entrepreneurial lessons. Thereafter she moved to FNB Business Banking where she managed a portfolio of business clients.

Ms. Lahri is an accomplished Professional Accountant with a Masters in Strategic Management (BCOM, FCCA), with more than 17 years' experience in the mining industry, including 10 years within Corporate Finance at Debswana at the senior management level. She has also served as a board member in the Debswana Pension Fund, Botswana Accountancy College, and Pula Medical Aid. She currently serves as a director on the board of First National Bank declared the leading bank in Botswana. Ms. Lahri has served as Boteti's CFO and Director since March 2013, responsible for Finance, Administration, and Security. In May 2018 she was promoted to Managing Director, being the first woman and the first Motswana woman to serve in this capacity for a diamond mining company in Botswana. 

Andrew joined Monitor Deloitte as a Director following Deloitte’s acquisition of Monitor. He had joined Monitor as a partner, after being a partner and founding member of North Road Consulting. Andrew has led strategy, operational improvement, organization redesign and implementation projects in several industries. Andrew has specific expertise in mining, logistics and manufacturing. His consulting experience spans operational turnarounds, performance improvement, and strategy development for private, listed and parastatal companies. His strategy expertise spans portfolio strategy, corporate and business unit strategy, growth strategy, and sustainability strategy. Prior to founding North Road Consulting, Andrew enjoyed a successful career at Bain & Company in Johannesburg and London. During this time he led client assignments in various industries, including mining, car rental, utilities, revenue collection, general industry and media. He has extensive general management experience, having held senior positions at Nampak and Lithotech (a member of the Bidvest Group).

Segun has been the CEO of Thor since August 2011. He has identified and lead all of Thor’s acquisitions and financings and Thor’s JV with Acacia Mining.

He is a Co- founder of African Star Resources Incorporated where he served as an officer assisting with financing, corporate and business development activities. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the Royal School of Mines at Imperial College (UK) with Honours in Geology, and has an MBA from Cass Business School. Mr Lawson had extensive transaction experience at Noble Company, in the Oil and Gas corporate finance areas, and also experience at Premier Oil in identifying and negotiating new West African opportunities.

Pontsho Ledwaba holds an MSc degree in Mining Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand. She is currently a Lecturer at the School of Mining Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand. Previously she was a Senior Engineer at Mintek, a science and technology organisation. She worked in numerous projects at Mintek in the areas of mineral development, minerals beneficiation, skills development and training. She has been conducting research in the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) for over 8 years and is currently pursuing her doctoral studies on the contribution of ASM to local socio-economic development in South Africa. The project is aimed at developing a strategy framework for the ASM sector in South Africa.

Peter Ledwidge, Managing Director and founder of Mako Gold, is a geologist with over 30 years’ experience in exploration and mining. His career has focused primarily on gold in Canada, Africa and Australia.

Prior to founding Mako Gold, Peter was a senior manager with ASX-listed Orbis Gold whereby he secured all of Orbis’ permits in Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire. Peter played a critical role in the discovery of the Nabanga gold deposit and thereafter contributed geological ideas towards the discovery of the Boungou mine, currently being mined by Endeavour Mining Corporation. Peter is fluently bilingual in French, the working language of the majority of West Africa, and has established and maintained good professional contacts in West Africa.

Peter is a partner and Co-Chair of the Africa Practice Group at global law firm Herbert Smith Freehills and is based in the firm's Johannesburg office.
He is one of the world's pre-eminent mining lawyers according to the International Who's Who of Mining Lawyers and other peer reviewed global legal directories. His areas of expertise include mineral and petroleum regulation in developing countries (including the South African Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, 2002 and international best practice), black economic empowerment and indigenisation law, international investment law and financial services regulation. 
Peter regularly advises on major mine development agreements and resources regulatory issues across Anglophone Africa. He also has significant experience in contentious matters involving States in sub-Saharan Africa. He is particularly skilled in crisis management and has provided expert advice on an urgent basis to clients to assist them in managing and mitigating significant country risks.
Peter is well versed in the Sub-Saharan African geopolitical climate and provides strategic advice not only on the mineral regulatory framework but also how to navigate the framework within the prevailing economic and political conditions in key African mining jurisdictions.
Peter is a regular speaker at conferences, courses and Parliamentary hearings in South Africa and internationally. He is an honorary lecturer at the University of Dundee in Scotland. He is also an accomplished speaker and has written extensively on the topics of mining, resource nationalism, the regulation of foreign direct investment, and black economic empowerment and indigenisation law.

Richard Linnell has been active in the mineral resources business for nearly 40 years and has significant global experience in the development and marketing of resources and commodities. He joined Middelburg Steel & Alloys as Marketing Manager for the Stainless Steel division in 1985 and was subsequently involved in the establishment of the Columbus Stainless Steel Project.   He then became General Manager of the Manganese Division of Samancor, a joint venture between the then Billiton Plc. and the Anglo American Corporation. Samancor had a dominant position globally in manganese and chrome markets. He then moved to head Billiton Plc’s Exploration and Development activities within Africa, and gained considerable experience in Guinea, Mauritania, Sudan, Morocco, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, as well as South Africa. Richard retired from BHP Billiton in 2001 and made a successful transition to the junior exploration and mining sector where he has been involved in the creation, raising of funds, development, and management of several private and listed junior and mid-tier exploration and mining companies, including the roles of non-Executive Chairman and Director of companies listed on the Sydney, Toronto, London and Johannesburg stock exchanges.  He is currently non-Executive Director of New Kush Exploration and Mining, Acrux Resources Ltd, Wogen Resources SA Ltd and Nimag Pty Limited.  Aside from his direct interests in mineral exploration and mining Company’s Richard was the originator of the Bakubang Initiative, a Forum designed to revive the South African Junior Mining Industry which lead to the establishment of the New Africa Mining Fund. He was also a member of the Electricity Council (representing the mining industry) which was the forerunner of Eskom Limited before corporatisation.  Richard has a BSc (Hons) London External Degree from the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which was then an External London College.  Linnell is, or was within the past five years, an officer and/or director of the following public companies: Brinkley Mining Company Ltd Chairman 2008 2009; Chrome Corporation Ltd Chairman 2007 2009; Coal of Africa Ltd Chairman 2001 2012; GRD MinprocLtd Director 2008 2009; IPSA Ltd Non-Executive Chairman 2010 Present; Mag Industries Corporation Director 2006 2011; Maghreb Minerals Plc. Chairman 2008 2011; Moydow Mines International Inc. Director 2007 2010; Namakwa Diamonds Limited Director 2003 2006; Rockwell Diamonds Inc. Director 2009 Present; Sacoil Holdings Limited Chairman 2004 2013; Gold Mines of Algeria Ltd Chairman 2005 2010; Falkland Gold and Minerals Ltd Chairman 2004-2010.

Cobus qualified as a chartered accountant with Deloitte & Touche in South Africa and he is also a CFA® Charterholder. He has been a director of Pan African Resources since 2009 and served as Financial Director of Pan African Resources from 2013 until his appointment as Chief Executive Officer on 1 March 2015. Cobus has 15 years of management and investment experience in the African mining environment and has successfully executed a number of value-accretive projects and transactions during his time at Pan African Resources. Pan African Resources is focused on safe, low-cost and sustainable gold production.

James was born and raised in Johannesburg and paid for a BA degree from Wits University by working as a journalist at Capital Radio News. He worked as the South African correspondent for a number of foreign radio services including Australian and Canadian Broadcasting Services. He founded the radio news agency Network Radio Services. He also worked as Resident Advisor for Internews Network NGO in Indonesia. He has trained and consulted in Tanzania, East Timor, Thailand and South Sudan. He was previously Tony Leon’s spokesperson. James was elected to parliament in 2009 and has been the Shadow Minister of Mineral Resources since 2012.

As the Head of Business Development and Resources at Afrimat Limited, Louis Loubser was part of the team that successfully negotiated the acquisition of Infrasors into the Afrimat stable.  In 2013, he was appointed Managing Director of Infrasors – demonstrating great competency in turning  Infrasors around.  In July 2018, Louis joined Mooiplaats Colliery as CEO and is loving the challenge of re-energising the huge potential of this asset and its workforce.  Louis holds a B.Com Management Accounting degree, an University of Derby Certificate in International Quarry Operations and MBA Cum Laude from University of Stellenbosch. 

Paul Loudon has a BSc (Hons) in economics and engineering and more than 25 years′ experience in stockbroking, corporate finance and management of junior mining and exploration companies. He has been President of Battlefields Minerals Corporation of Toronto and Chairman of BDI Mining Corp. He was head of Equities at Loeb Aron & Company Ltd, a London corporate finance house specialising in the mining sector, where he was responsible for raising considerable sums of equity capital for resource companies listed in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Mr Loudon is an Associate of the Securities Institute and a member of the Southern African Institute of Mines and Metallurgy. He resides in Kroonstad, Free State Province, and was a founder of DiamondCorp in 2005. 

Derryn joined Wood Mackenzie in November 2019 and is currently the Global Head of Metals and Mining Markets, based in Singapore. Prior to this role, he spent eight years leading HSBC’s Metals and Mining Research team while covering the major miners and key commodity views. Derryn also worked for Anglo American in a variety of corporate and operational roles for nine years. Derryn holds an MBA (Imperial College) and a BSc in Mining Engineering (Wits).

Aviona received her law degree from the University of Pretoria and has completed certificate courses in mining at the University of the Witswatersrand. She is passionate about sustainable economic development and believes that education and the empowerment of women and youth are important pillars to achieving economic goals, especially in South Africa. Aviona also contributes her legal expertise as a non-executive of the non-profit organization, Kliptown Youth Programme, and is mentoring one of their youngest members.

Vusi Mabena recently retired from the Chamber of Mines of South Africa where he served as a Senior Executive: Transformation and Stakeholder Relations in the last four years of his tenure at the Chamber. Prior to that he was a Skills Development Advisor for nine years at the Chamber. He served the Chamber to the best of his ability, representing the voice of its members mostly in the area of skills development. Vusi started his career as a teacher and ended up in the management echelons of the Department of Education before joining the private sector as a literacy and numeracy skills facilitator in a gases company. He then moved to training in management development at different companies in the financial services sector. He was also the Head of Training and Organizational Development at a development finance institution. Vusi really cut his teeth in the field of training and development and gained a passion for people development. Whilst at the Chamber he was given the challenge of setting up the Emerging Miners Desk and when he left the Chamber had recruited more than 20 emerging miners. To pursue the challenge of facilitating the entry of junior and entrepreneurial miners into the mainstream mining sector he has taken the challenge of assisting an entrepreneurial miner, Grenac South Africa, to get its projects off the ground. Apart from a teacher’s qualification, Vusi also holds an undergraduate degree and three post-graduate qualifications.

Mosa Mabuza qualified as geologist with a BSc (Hons) and with a PDA in Business. He has extensive exploration experience in multiple regional jurisdictions that span SADC, West Africa and Canada, amongst others. He assumed his official duties in 2006 as Director of Mineral Economics in the erstwhile Department of Minerals and Energy and later became Deputy Director-General of the Mineral Policy (and Investment Promotion) in 2012. During his tenure as an official, he was assigned with the duties of leading the preliminary strategy for sustainable development and meaningful transformation of South Africa’s mining industry with emphasis on competitive growth and transformation as symbolistic reinforcing concepts, the development of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Amendment Bill and the assessment of the progress impact on the implementation of the Mining Charter in 2009 and 2015, which respectively based the evidence value proposition for the amendments of the 2010 and 2017 Mining Charter. Mr Mabuza represented the Department of Mineral Resources on the boards of number of science councils and State-Owned Entities, including, albeit not limited to, the Council for Geoscience, Mintek and the South African Diamond and Precious Metals Regulator. In November 2016, Mr Mabuza was deployed to the Council for Geoscience and now serves as CEO (since July 2017). He is currently working with his colleagues to champion the refocused geo-scientific programme that seeks to optimise the development impact, aligned with the national developmental priorities.

Peter Major was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on 16 May 1955. His family moved to Kellogg, Idaho, the 'silver mining capital of the world' in 1961, where Peter grew up and worked through 1981. Peter graduated from Montana School of Mines in 1981 and came to South Africa in Jan 1982 to work for Harmony Gold Mine. He completed his South African Mine Manager's Certificate, an MBA from UCT and thereafter worked as a consultant and as Marketing & Training Manager for Eimco Mining Machinery SA. Peter began his investment career with Allan Gray in 1989 as a gold mine analyst. He then spent 10 years as mining analyst & fund manager at Nedcor Investment Bank where he won 2 Raging Bull Awards, 1 ‘runner up, and was South Africa’s Top Fund Manager 2 other years. In 2001 as CIO he set up HBD Asset Management with Mark Shuttleworth, with assets of $530m growing to $1.5bn by 2005. In 2006 Peter joined Mergence where he is Director: Mining, focusing on Private Equity, Capital Raising and M & A activity in the Mining & Resources sector.

Mining Engineer and MBA holder, Thabile is an experienced and driven executive, leading within the competitive environment of mining. Her multifunctional and multi-commodity roles have spanned corporate and operational levels and she leverages close on 20 years of service to the gold, coal and platinum mining sectors. Before joining Implats, she held various senior positions and served with commensurate success at Gold Fields, AngloGold Ashanti and Anglo American. Among her many personal and professional accomplishments, her notable achievements include being one of 16 South African women featured in 2018’s list of Top 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining, compiled by the London-based Women in Mining (WiM) UK. She was nominated in The Mining Woman category of The Mail & Guardian’s Power of Women in 2021, and selected as a Mining Modernisation Heroby the Minerals Council of South Africa in March 2022. Committed to creating more diverse and inclusive organisations, Thabile, in collaboration with the Minerals Council of South Africa, was part of the leadership team that led the development of the Women in Mining initiative to achieve gender equality, with a goal of 30% women by 2025.

Mr Samson Gwede Mantashe was born on the 21st of June 1955 in the village of Lower Cala in the then Transkei (now Eastern Cape Province). He cut his teeth as an activist in the Student Christian Movement (SCM). Minister Mantashe received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of South Africa (UNISA) in 1997, where he also completed a Bachelor of Commerce Honours in 2002. He holds a Masters’ degree from the University of Witwatersrand (WITS), acquired in 2008. He is currently studying for his Masters’ in Business Administration through MANCOSA. In 1975 he was employed as the Recreation Officer at the Western Deep Levels mine and, in the same year, moved to Prieska Copper Mines where he served as the Welfare Officer until 1982. Working at the Matla Colliery in 1982, Mr Mantashe co-founded and became the Witbank branch chairperson of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), a position he held until 1984. In 1985, he was elected as the NUM Regional Secretary. A skilled mineworker and leader, Mr Mantashe served as the NUM’s National Organiser from 1988 to 1993; and became the Regional Coordinator between 1993 and 1994. From 1994 to 1998, Mr Mantashe served as the Assistant General Secretary of the NUM, whereupon he was elected as the first worker General Secretary at the union’s congress in 1998.

For his first stint in government, Mr Mantashe was elected Councillor in the Ekurhuleni Municipality in 1995 where he served until 1999. In 1995, he became the first trade unionist to be appointed to the Board of Directors of a Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed company, namely, Samancor. In May 2006, he relinquished his position as the General Secretary of the NUM at the union’s 12th National Congress. In the same year, Mr Mantashe was appointed as the Executive Director at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) where, for a period of two years, he served as the Chairperson of the Technical Working Group of the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA). In 2007, Mr Mantashe was elected as the Chairperson of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and also served as a member of the Party’s Central Committee. In December 2007, he was elected as the Secretary General of the African National Congress (ANC) at the party’s 52nd National Conference. He was re-elected to the same position in 2012. At the ANC’s 54th National Conference, in 2017, Mr Mantashe was elected as the National Chairperson. Mr Mantashe was appointed Minister of Mineral Resources in February 2018. Following the 6th democratic elections in 2019, and with the expansion of the Ministry to include Energy, he was appointed as the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy in May 2019 where he currently serves.

Mr Samson Gwede Mantashe was born on the 21st of June 1955 in the village of Lower Cala in the then Transkei (now Eastern Cape Province). He cut his teeth as an activist in the Student Christian Movement (SCM). Minister Mantashe received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of South Africa (UNISA) in 1997, where he also completed a Bachelor of Commerce Honours in 2002. He holds a Masters’ degree from the University of Witwatersrand (WITS), acquired in 2008. He is currently studying for his Masters’ in Business Administration through MANCOSA. In 1975 he was employed as the Recreation Officer at the Western Deep Levels mine and, in the same year, moved to Prieska Copper Mines where he served as the Welfare Officer until 1982. Working at the Matla Colliery in 1982, Mr Mantashe co-founded and became the Witbank branch chairperson of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), a position he held until 1984. In 1985, he was elected as the NUM Regional Secretary. A skilled mineworker and leader, Mr Mantashe served as the NUM’s National Organiser from 1988 to 1993; and became the Regional Coordinator between 1993 and 1994. From 1994 to 1998, Mr Mantashe served as the Assistant General Secretary of the NUM, whereupon he was elected as the first worker General Secretary at the union’s congress in 1998.

For his first stint in government, Mr Mantashe was elected Councillor in the Ekurhuleni Municipality in 1995 where he served until 1999. In 1995, he became the first trade unionist to be appointed to the Board of Directors of a Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed company, namely, Samancor. In May 2006, he relinquished his position as the General Secretary of the NUM at the union’s 12th National Congress. In the same year, Mr Mantashe was appointed as the Executive Director at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) where, for a period of two years, he served as the Chairperson of the Technical Working Group of the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA). In 2007, Mr Mantashe was elected as the Chairperson of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and also served as a member of the Party’s Central Committee. In December 2007, he was elected as the Secretary General of the African National Congress (ANC) at the party’s 52nd National Conference. He was re-elected to the same position in 2012. At the ANC’s 54th National Conference, in 2017, Mr Mantashe was elected as the National Chairperson. Mr Mantashe was appointed Minister of Mineral Resources in February 2018. Following the 6th democratic elections in 2019, and with the expansion of the Ministry to include Energy, he was appointed as the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy in May 2019 where he currently serves.

Stefano is the Chief Executive Officer of Renergen Limited (“Renergen”), a dual-listed helium and natural gas company with substantial gas reserves in the Free State of South Africa (the “Gas Fields”). He was part of the team which acquired the Gas Fields from Molopo Energy Limited in April 2013 and was instrumental in taking the Gas Fields from a stranded gas asset into production with funding from the US Government and an Initial Public Offering on the Australian Securities Exchange. Along with Nick Mitchell, they pioneered the use of natural gas in heavy duty vehicles in South Africa to help decarbonise the South African economy, which ultimately lead to a joint-venture with Total South Africa Proprietary Limited, and he pioneered Cryo-Vacc ™ to help in the global rollout of vaccines in the fight against COVID-19. Stefano has significant experience in the areas of structured finance and advisory. After completing his formative training with Deutsche Bank, Stefano was recruited by Morgan Stanley in London, where he was ultimately charged with building their sub-Saharan African fixed income capital markets business before leaving banking to start his own financial services firm. Stefano has a BSc Actuarial Science and a BSc Hons in Advanced Mathematics of Finance

Daphne was born in Johannesburg, Soweto. In the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, she was part of the student contingent that was detained by the apartheid security forces. Upon her release, she became a founding member of Detainees Parents Support Committee, which gave moral and material support to families of detainees and political prisoners during the 70s and early 80s. She was active in formation of United Democratic Front and, after the unbanning of the ANC, became the chairperson of the Soweto Sub-region of the Women’s League and General Secretary of the Soweto South African Communist Party.

She served on the National Committee of the Women’s National Coalition and was involved in the pre-Beijing and the post-Beijing process. She was active in the formation of Transvaal Rural Action Committee, an NGO fighting against forced removals and incorporation into the homelands systems. This experience matured into an active Rural Development career, with a special focus of rural women and culminated in the formation of the National Movement of Rural Women, which is still concerned with the rights and development of rural women. She remains committed to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the movement. She submitted the document “Minority Status of African Women under customary Law” and organised advocacy programmes around the implications of polygamy.

In 2001, Daphne together with her late husband, Stanley Nqobizizwe Nkosi, and other strategic partners ventured into mining and founded a company now called Kalagadi Manganese with interests in manganese. This initiative culminated in a R7 billion project which comprises of a mine, an ore preparation plant, and a sinter plant in Hotazel, the Northern Cape. The final phase of their plan, which will articulate the completeness of this project, will be the construction of a Smelter Plant in the Coega IDZ where the product will be further beneficiated to 78 percent High Carbon Ferromanganese. The smelter plant was estimated at R5 billion in 2014.

Daphne was nominated to study development economics in 1993, in Nagoya, Japan. She has a keen interest on gender issues, and encourages the business community to invest in improving the quality of life of poor communities and the nurturing of women entrepreneurs and business leaders. Among other things, she is a strong proponent of infrastructure investment with spill-over effects on communities and has continuously proposed new funding models for entrepreneurs.

She is currently the Non-Executive Director on the boards of various companies, including: Eyesizwe Mining, Exxaro, First Rand Empowerment Trust, Interfile, Kalahari Resources, Metmar Trading, South African National Roads Agency Limited, Temoso Holdings, Women’s Development Bank Trust, and Women’s Development Bank Investments Holdings, among others.

Daphne’s success and business acumen has been recognised worldwide through various local and international awards which include the: The Black Business Council Baobab Award (2016), Motlekar Holdings Platinum Award (2015), Most Outstanding Woman of the Year Award in New York (2015); African Female Business Leader of the Year Award in London (2015), African Mining and Metals Deal of the Year at the IJ Global Europe & Africa Awards in London (2015), Africa Forum CEO of the Year Award (2014), International Star for Leadership in Quality Platinum Award (2014), International Star for Leadership in Quality Gold Award (2013), and IPM CEO of the Year Award (2013).

Humphrey is a qualified geologist with an MSc from Rhodes University and a PhD from the University of Natal, Durban. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Tranter Resources (Pty) Limited. Previously he was the Chief Executive Officer of Scinta South Africa (Pty) Limited, the Executive General Manager: Corporate Services at Exxaro Resources Limited and prior to that was the COO and Executive Director of Eyesizwe Coal (Pty) Limited. He has in excess of 38 years experience in the mining industry. Humphrey sits on the boards of Ferret Mining and Environmental Services (Pty) Ltd, Scinta South Africa (Pty) Limited (Non-Executive Chairman), Tranter Group of companies, Council for Geoscience (CGS), Wescoal Holdings Limited, Handa Copper Corporation (a TSX-listed exploration company) and Howden Africa Holdings Limited. He also serves on the Investment Committee of the Acrux Resources (Pty) Limited. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of South Africa.

Otsile Matlou is ENSafrica’s Chief Operating Officer. As COO, he ensures the seamless delivery of effective solutions for clients across the continent. His expertise covers the circle of mining – from exploration, mining and beneficiation to downscaling and closure. His experience ranges from start-up exploration projects to well-established mining projects and he acts for a wide range of mining companies in all mineral commodity sectors, including the base and precious metals, coal, rare earths, sand and diamonds sectors. Otsile’s expertise includes advising on mining aspects of equity and asset acquisitions, disposals and corporate restructuring and black economic empowerment transactions, as well as on distressed mining assets and on royalties in the mining sector. His experience further includes all aspects of regulatory work in the mining and petroleum (upstream) industries, for listed and unlisted senior, mid-tier and junior companies, as well as for financial institutions with regards to resource-finance projects.

He is also recognised as a leading lawyer by:

• IFLR1000 Financial and Corporate Guide (including Energy and Infrastructure) 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 – Leading Lawyer – Highly Regarded; 2020, 2019 – Project Development (South Africa)
• Chambers Global Guide 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 – Energy & Natural Resources: Mining (South Africa)
• The Legal 500 EMEA 2021, 2018, 2017 – Regional Summary (Africa); 2020, 2019, 2017, 2016, 2015 – Mining – Recommended/Key Lawyer (South Africa)

Octavia is a Chartered Accountant with more than 12 years of professional and executive experience. She obtained her B.Com degree and B. Com. Hon and CTA from the University of Cape Town and University of Pretoria respectively.  In 2003 she completed her articles with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) before joining the Gauteng Department of Public Transport, Roads and Works, first as Deputy Chief Financial Officer and then Chief Director: Management Accounting. In 2009 she was appointed by court as the first woman curator in the insurance industry. Octavia is a dynamic entrepreneur and executive who in 2011 was selected as one of the six finalists for the 2011 MTN Boss of the Year Award; and won the 2011 Van Ryn’s Black Business Quarterly’s New Entrepreneur after winning Van Ryn’s Black Business Quarterly’s Business Women of the Year in 2010. She founded various group of companies in various sectors ranging from auditing, training and development, mining, transport, financial services; and beauty, health and nutrition. Tsidkenu Chartered Accountants Inc and Mukundi Mining Resources are among the companies she founded and she is currently the Group CEO of Mukundi Mining Resources.

Anton Mauve took over as Chief Executive Officer of Consolidated Nickel Mines plc. in 2019. He has been leading the company out of near-insolvency and has achieved a 400% improvement in production on its nickel operations to date.  Anton has over 30 years’ experience in corporate management, mining, exploration and minerals extraction. He is a partner at both Plinian Capital Ltd. and CE Mining; a fund investing in high value exploration and mining opportunities. He holds an MBA, MSc in Science in Engineering, and BSc (Hons) in Geology.  Anton formerly held the positions of MD at West African Minerals Corporation, Vice President Strategy and Long-term Planning with Lonmin plc. and an advisor on Southern African Minerals Development to the US Embassy in South Africa. 

Kolobe Nala Investment Company (Pty) Ltd (KNI) is a family-owned business focused on investments in mining, energy and aviation and is headed by Billy Mawasha, who has extensive mining experience with Anglo American, Rio Tinto, De Beers and AngloGold Ashanti to name but a few. Until recently, Billy was the Country Head in South Africa for Rio Tinto and the MD of Richards Bay Minerals. In addition, Billy serves on the Board of Metair Investments Ltd (MTA:SJ – Automotive Components and Battery Manufacturer) and is the Chairman of their Investment Committee and a member of the Audit and Risk and Nomination Committees. Billy is also a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Billy’s experience, a strong network of relationships in the mining industry and his understanding of doing business across the continent, enables KNI to bring long-term value-adding perspectives, hands-on and pragmatic expertise and solid operational and technical know-how to projects they invest in. This is realised through strategic guidance and active participation in the board of directors and associated committees, in particular the investment, technical and risk committees and through working collaboratively with relevant parties and management teams. 

Conor McFadden advises both domestic and international clients on direct and indirect taxation matters relating to corporate and business law, including the tax aspects of mergers and acquisitions, securities, corporate restructurings, cross-border transactions, transfer pricing, thin capitalisation, employee share option schemes and state royalties on mineral resource transfers. He is regularly involved in making representations to the National Treasury on draft revenue legislation and applying for Advance Tax Rulings on behalf of clients from the Advance Tax Ruling Unit. Conor has extensive experience in tax litigation and alternative dispute resolution and deals with the South African Revenue Service on a regular basis. 

Bill is the General Manager and a Director of Snowden Mining industry Consultants, based in Johannesburg and responsible for the company’s business throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He is an exploration geologist with more than 43 years’ experience in the mining business, including 32 years with Anglo American and De Beers and eight years as head of De Beers’ global exploration activities. Bill was directly involved in the discovery and development of four new diamond mines in southern Africa and participated in various kimberlite resource sampling and evaluation projects on five continents. In recent years he has contributed to or directed the preparation of various competent persons reports, covering different commodities, for listing purposes as well as independent reports for finance institutions in a number of jurisdictions.

Sean Meadon, a SACNASP-registered mineral resources and mining start-up professional, with a Msc in Geology from Witwatersrand University, has been involved in exploration, resource modelling and mine start-ups for the past 30 years. He has worked either directly for, or as a consultant to, most of the major mining houses and was also employed at SRK Consulting where he honed his due diligence and resource estimation skills.

Sean has worked on his own projects for the past 10 years and currently operates PGM and gold projects. Through his firm Deadline Solutions, Sean has done valuations, due diligences and audits for a number of publicly-listed and private mining companies. He has presented SACNASP-accredited training courses for entrepreneurs on all aspects of mining start-ups and has a deep understanding of the mineral rights/environmental authorisation application process. He firmly believes that South Africa is a land of great mining opportunities, you just need to do the work properly to succeed.

Ken Mekani has been with Metallon for 27 years after joining the then Lonrho Mining as Graduate Trainee Metallurgist in June 1987. After completing the Graduate Trainee Programme, Ken was appointed Plant Metallurgist. He spent several years in the group’s various operations where he worked his way up the ranks and was involved in major Metallurgical projects. In December 2012, he was appointed Acting COO for Metallon Gold Zimbabwe and in June 2013 was appointed General Manager for the group’s flagship operation, How Mine. From August 2010 to August 2013, Ken was non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Technical Committee of Sabi Gold Mine, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation. Ken holds a BSc. Metallurgical Engineering (1987) from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (USA) and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University Of Zimbabwe Graduate School Of Management (2006). 

Rick has had a business career of over 40 years. A South African, he trained as an exploration geologist at Cambridge and Stanford universities, worked as a geologist in Canada, USA and South Africa and then spent time as an investment banker for the mining industry in New York and Australia with JP Morgan. After a period as an executive director for Delta Gold in Australia, working on new gold mines in Australia and gold and platinum projects in Zimbabwe, he returned to South Africa in 1991 and rejoined the mining industry there as finance director for diversified mining company Anglovaal Mining.He led Anglovaal Mining from 1996 as CEO and then Executive Chairman until 2004. During this time he merged Anglovaal with Patrice Motsepe’s ARM to form African Rainbow Minerals, where he remained Deputy Chairman, and also CEO of subsidiary Teal until he left the group in 2008. Prior to 2011 he also served as President of the SA Minerals Council, Chairman of Tourism SA, Chairman of Bateman Engineering, Deputy Chairman of Harmony Gold and of Associated Manganese Mines and a director of Standard Bank Group, Telkom South Africa and Mutual & Federal Insurance. He has been a senior advisor to the WTO, the IOM and a Mining Council member for the WEF, all in Geneva. In 2011 he joined Credit Suisse’ investment banking group as a Senior Advisor, working on transactions in all sectors, and throughout sub–Saharan Africa. He has retained an active involvement in leadership in the mining and mining supplies industries, retiring recently as Deputy Chairman of Gold Fields Ltd and as Senior Independent Director at the Weir Group (UK). He remains Lead Independent Director at Sibanye-Stillwater Limited, a precious and green metals mining company listed in Johannesburg and New York. Rick has been active throughout his career in the nonprofit-sector, serving on numerous boards including the Business Trust, the NBI, BLSA and the CDE. He is founding Co-Chairman of City Year South Africa youth service organization, a council member at the University of the Western Cape and a member of the Advisory Board of the African Leadership Academy.

Nomfundo is a General Manager for Sales and Marketing at RMA – a leading administrator for occupational injuries and diseases in the mining and metals industry. Over the past 15 years, she has held management positions in both the short-term and life insurance industries. Nomfundo possesses a wealth of experience in compliance, general life office management, business development, stakeholder management, product innovation, distribution strategy, sales and marketing. She has a B.Comm and has completed the Senior Management Development Programme at the University of Stellenbosch and the Channel Leadership Programme with INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France).

Mxolisi Mgojo has been in the mining industry since 2001. Prior to that, his career includes 10 years as a software engineer and 8 years in the finance industry including Societé Generale Investment Banking. Mxolisi has been with Exxaro Resources since its inception in 2006, heading the Base Metals and Industrial Minerals business before being appointed as the Executive Head of Coal in August 2008.  In May 2015 Mxolisi was appointed as CEO Designate and took over the reins from Sipho Nkosi as Chief Executive Officer on 1 April 2016.  Before joining Exxaro, Mxolisi was a founder member of Eyesizwe Coal where he was the Marketing and Logistics Manager.  Mxolisi sits on the boards of Exxaro Resources and Tronox Limited. On 24 May 2017 Mxolisi was elected as the President of the Chamber of Mines of South Africa after serving on the Executive Council of the Chamber since 2015 and the Collieries Committee of the Chamber prior to becoming a member of the Chamber’s Executive Council.  He stepped down from this role in May 2021.  On 27 May 2017, Mxolisi received the Paul Harris Award from the Hatfield Branch of the Rotary Foundation. Mxolisi has a BSc degree in Computer Science (Northeastern University, USA), an Honours degree in Energy Studies (Rand Afrikaans University), a Diploma in International Financial Management and an MBA (Henley Management College, UK).  He has also completed a Societé Generale Investment Banking and Corporate Finance Programme (Kellogg, USA) and an Advanced Management Programme (Wharton).

Paul is a business development specialist with a background in sales consulting, financial services, mining finance, minerals exploration, mine development and mining operations. He has previously worked as a management consultant, with Accenture, in the South African logistics, mining and financial services sectors and advised clients on equity capital raisings, mergers and acquisitions and Black Economic Empowerment transactions while an investment banker with Nedbank CIB. He was Founder and Managing Director of Keaton Energy, which was then a start-up coal exploration company.  He led the team which took the company through a listing and equity capital raising on the JSE, project financed and built a 2.4mtpa open-cast colliery and acquired and turned-around a distressed ultra-low seam anthracite colliery.  He then had a second stint with Nedbank CIB as a specialist Mining & Metals Investment Banker with responsibility for growing the bank’s business across all products in South Africa and into the rest of Africa. Until recently, Paul was Managing Director of CCP 12J Managers (Pty) Ltd, the management company of CCP 12J Fund Limited, a mining-focused venture capital company, established in terms of Section 12J of the Income Tax Act. Paul is currently a Director of AmaranthCX, a consultancy. Paul was listed in Miningmx’s Rainmakers and Potstirrers as one of the 100 most influential people in SA’s mining industry in every edition from 2008 to 2012 and again in 2018. He is a member of the JSE’s Altx Advisory Committee.  Paul is regularly invited to speak at industry conferences and is frequently quoted in the press. Paul completed INSEAD’s Advanced Management Programme at the Singapore campus in 2015 and has a B.Comm (Hons) degree (cum laude) from the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg.

Gargi is a seasoned exploration geologist with nearly two decades of experience in the mining industry and has worked across the mining value chain in Canada, Angola, DRC, Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho and India. Gargi was named as one of the Top 100 global inspirational women in mining for 2018. She is passionate about creating an enabling environment for Mining Innovation in Africa. She currently works at Accenture as Mining Innovation Senior Principal. She started her career as a field geologist and is a trained kimberlite petrologist. She holds a Ph.D. in Geometallurgy from the University of Johannesburg. In 2015, she founded the Mining Innovation Portal, a platform to build awareness of open innovation in mining, and later founded a tech startup to help mining clients in their digital transformation journey.

She is the recipient of the “FEMINA WOMEN SUPER ACHIEVER AWARD 2017”. This award celebrates the role played by women as leaders, executioners and decision makers in various fields. In 2017, she was selected for “Standard Bank First Women InTech Accelerator programme”. In 2018, she was nominated for “Inspiring fifty”, a Dutch initiative that showcases inspiring female role models in the technology industry.

Mpumelelo Mkhabela is the Chairperson of Menar, which has controlling stakes in Canyon Coal, Zululand Anthracite Colliery, Kangra and East Manganese. He is an experienced media practitioner and business leader.

As a political and policy analyst, Mkhabela regularly comments on South Africa’s political economy. He has edited the Sowetan and the Daily Dispatch newspapers and is also the former chairman of the South African National Editors’ Forum. His qualifications include a BA Hons (Political Science) from the University of Limpopo, BA Journalism (Hons) and a certificate in economic and political risk analysis from Stellenbosch University and, lastly, an MA in International Politics from the University of South Africa.

Daniel is an Independent Consultant with a 22-year career spanning development financing, science/technology, nuclear industry, and manufacturing and engineering industries in both public and parastatal sectors. Dan has passion as turnaround specialist who excels at fueling change in organisations. Over the past two years Daniel has been involved in the diamond and energy industries.   Dan served as Senior Executive Manager: Pelindaba Enterprise with South Africa Nuclear Energy Corporation (NECSA), where he was the head of its commercial wing. Prior to that he was the Group Executive of HR. Prior to joining NECSA, Daniel worked at the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in various capacities for more than 8 years. His last position at the DST was as a Chief Operations Officer. Daniel’s early career roles include tenure as a General Manager and Manager with the DST, a Researcher with the Presidency and an Institutional Specialist with the Development Bank of Southern Africa.  

Fortune is a mining entrepreneur with a strong exploration and development track record, Fortune has played a leading role in the origination, establishment and project development of several junior mining companies in Africa including New Kush Exploration and Mining (Gold in South Sudan), AfriTin Mining (Tin), Bushveld Resources Limited (Iron Ore), New Horizon Minerals (Iron Ore), Bushveld Platinum Limited (PGMs) and Eagle Resources Limited (Uranium). As Chief Executive Officer of Bushveld Minerals since its inception, he also serves as a Non-Executive Director of ASX-listed Lemur Resources Limited.

Adv Thabo Mokoena was born on 20 March 1975 in Senekal, situated in the eastern part of the Free State province. He attended various farm schools from 1984 to 1989. In 1990, he moved to Tembisa Township and studied at the Jiyana Senior Secondary School until 1996, when he completed his matric. In 1997, he was awarded a scholarship to study law. He completed his LLB Degree and Postgraduate Diploma in Law from the University of the Western Cape. He has served as the African National Congress Youth League, Deputy Regional Secretary, in the Thabo Mofutsanyana Region; and further served as a Member or the Provincial Executive Committee of the Young Communist League in the Free State Province. He has served as the Deputy Regional Secretary of the African National Congress and Deputy District Secretary of the South African Communist Party in the Thabo Mofutsanyana Region and as a Regional Head of the ANC Legal and Monitoring Task Team for the Free State Regional Election Team. He also served as the Provincial Head of Legal and Monitoring for the African National Congress Free State Election Team. In 2007, he was appointed as a Manager of Legal and Communication Services for the Setsoto Local Municipality. In 2012,he was appointed as the Municipal Manager for the Ngwathe Local Municipality. In 2014, he was appointed to serve as the Chief Executive Officer of the Free State Legislature until 2017. In 2017, he was appointed to serve as the Director-General of the Department of Mineral Resources, which is now the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.

Sam is currently the Head of Origination & Deals at the JSE. He is a seasoned financial services executive, with almost 20 years’ experience in corporate finance, private equity and the bond market. He has successfully executed corporate finance and private equity transactions worth R40 billion. He has worked at Standard Bank, Cadiz Corporate Finance, Quartile Capital and Vunani Capital.

Refilwe Monageng is an entrepreneurial businessman who has over ten years’ experience in Government and stakeholder relations. He enhanced his expertise through completing Business Communication and Directors Induction Programmes. Refilwe has recently been elected as a member of the Institute of Directors, Southern Africa.
Refilwe has served on the Minerals and Petroleum Board of South Africa since February 2015. Through the Board, his responsibilities include advising the Minister of Mineral Resources on the following matters: Sustainable development of the nation’s mineral resources, Transformation and down-scaling of the minerals and the mining industry, Dispute resolution, Promotion of human resources development in the minerals and mining industry.

In January 2020, Bert Monro was appointed CEO of Cora Gold. Bert has significant experience in both the resource sector and the City. Most notably, he spent over ten years at Hummingbird Resources plc, holding several roles including Operations Manager, Country Manager and Head of Business Development as the company transitioned from a private pre-resource explorer through to a listed gold miner with over 6 Mozs of gold resources in West Africa. Bert was a Non-Executive Director for Cora from its IPO until 2019.

Simon Morris joined Wood Mackenzie as its Global Head of Metals Research in April 2019. He leads a global team of research analysts who provide data and insight for any stakeholder involved in the extraction or consumption of aluminium, copper, gold, lead, nickel and zinc. Prior to this Simon spent 12 years working for Rio Tinto in London, Mozambique and South Africa. His career there encompassed a wide range of roles, including M&A due diligence and transaction execution, investment modelling and analysis, corporate relations – with a particular focus on sovereign risk management – and strategy/ financial planning. Simon started his career working for Shell Exploration and Production, with assignments in Aberdeen, Lagos and The Hague.  His work centred on Shell’s upstream assets, with a focus on business improvement and strategy-related projects. Simon has a Bachelors degree in Commerce from the University of Edinburgh and a Masters in International Relations from the London School of Economics.

Mametja Moshe has over fourteen years’ finance experience in corporate finance, equities capital markets, debt capital markets, black economic empowerment, accounting, auditing and corporate tax fields. She is the founder and CEO of Moshe Capital. Prior to Moshe Capital, Mametja worked at Identity Capital Partners(“ICP”), a South African investment group, as an executive in finance and senior associate in the investments team. Mametja spent over four years in banking prior to ICP at Morgan Stanley from 2007 to 2010 covering South African, Zambian and Nigerian M&A and equity capital markets and UBS South Africa (2006 to 2007) covering South African M&A. During this period in banking she led teams in the execution of transactions worth over $4 Billion. Before her investment-banking career, Mametja spent five years at KPMG Inc., serving her auditing articles in the consumer products team and later joining the corporate tax team where she covered tax compliance, restructurings, M&A and BEE transactions.

Mametja sat on the boards of Identity Mineral Resources (Pty) Ltd and Altech Netstar (Pty) Ltd (alternate), Southgold Exploration (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of the multinationally-listed Great Basin Gold Limited and EuroDollar Foreign Exchange (Pty) Ltd. Mametja obtained her B.Com Hons (Accounting) and B.Com Hons (Management Accounting) degrees from the University of KwazuluNatal. She is a qualified chartered accountant and an MBA graduate in the Global Executive Programme at Columbia Business School and London Business School.

Mr Mothomogolo has got many years of mining experience in both production and project management on deep level mines and he holds requisite certificates of competencies. He has got experience in most mineral resources mines and has also been in the consulting business where he gained project management experience in large capital projects. His projects experience covered work in the SADEC countries of: Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
He is currently responsible for the development of the Wesizwe’s Bakubung Platinum Project, a greenfield PGMs mine project in the Western Bushveld. The projects nominal direct budget is R10,67 bn. Other responsibilities are to integrate all other support projects for: Process Plant, Water and Power Supply as well as linking the mine operational readiness program. There is also Continuous Improvement Program for the company that he directs and oversees.
He served as a member of the shadow board in one of the companies he worked for and recently acted as a CEO of Wesizwe Platinum. Mr Mothomogolo is an ex-chairperson of the mining technical committee and ex-member of council of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy- SAIMM. He is a member of the PAC of the Engineering Council of South Africa.
He is a qualified Mining Engineer with an MBA from UCT and a Master of Engineering in Project Management (M.Eng.) from UP. He also holds memberships in: SAIMM, ECSA (Professional Engineer) and IoDSA.

Gerick Mouton, a Mechanical Engineer by profession, is the Senior Vice President for Ivanplats (Pty) Ltd (an Ivanhoe Mines Company). His previous appointments include Vice President & Project Director for Ivanhoe Mines, Project Director for Bateman Engineering Projects, Project Manager for DRA Global and Group Five. Gerick has been involved in the strategic development, implementation and execution of multifaceted mining projects on the African continent for nearly 20 years and has extensive knowledge in developing mining projects in challenging social environments. Gerick has completed various projects in Botswana, Ghana, Zambia, Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Gerick is currently studying towards his Masters in Philosophy (Sustainable Development within the Minerals Resource Sector) through the University of Cape Town. Gerick has been with the Ivanhoe Mines Group for more than 5 years and is responsible for the development of the world famous Platreef PGM Project in Limpopo, South Africa.

Allan Mulligan is a mining engineer with 30 years of mine management and production experience. Allan has specialised in technical assessment and production economics, feasibilities, project design and costing of underground mines and prospects. He has worked extensively in exploration, mine development and operations across Africa and Australia and understands the value of Australian expertise and African opportunity. Allan was a founding director of Walkabout Resources Pty Ltd. He has previously been on the board of several West Australian explorers.

Matt Mullins has 38 years’ experience in the minerals industry, as a Mining and Exploration Geologist, as a Consultant, in research, as a Mining Analyst and in senior management with a number of companies. He is currently an Independent Consultant specialising in resource optimisation and in mine technical and financial evaluation. Prior to this he was BHP’s Global Vice President for Mineral Resource Development, where he looked after brownfield exploration, resource estimation, reporting and governance, mine planning, geometallurgical engineering and major capital project governance for the Group. He designed and led the group productivity project for BHP. Prior to BHP, Matt held various positions in Randgold Resources, Geovaluation Services, Severin Mining, COMRO and Goldfields of SA.
Matt has direct commodity experience in iron ore, manganese, coal, copper, nickel, chrome, zinc, bauxite, heavy mineral sands, gold, diamonds and platinum, and has worked on operations and projects in Canada, the USA, Cuba, Suriname, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Mali, the DRC, Angola, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, China, Indonesia, and Australia. Matt has had a strong involvement in stock exchange resource public reporting over decades and is currently Chair of the SAMCODES Standards Committee. Matt is a Past President and Fellow of the GSSA, the SAIMM and the AusIMM.

Mitford has three decades’ experience in the mining industry, having worked for Harmony Gold, De Beers, Namakwa Diamonds and now Theta Gold Mines.  After working through all the mining ranks, he has held positions as General Manager, Business Coach,  Organisational Head of Business Improvement (Harmony and De Beers),  COO (Namdeb), and CEO (Namakwa Diamonds and Theta Gold Mines). He holds qualifications in mining, management and leadership, as well as an Executive Masters in Consulting and Coaching for Change from HEC Paris and the University of Oxford (summa cum laude).  He is also a qualified Business Coach and in the process of accreditation with the International Coaching Federation.

Brandon has over 20 years’ experience as a resources executive and lawyer, including serving as Bannerman Resources’ General Manager between 2009-2011 and CEO from 2016. Brandon lived in Namibia from 2009-2015, where he also served as Governance Advisorto the Namibian Uranium Association and Strategic Advisor – Mining Charterto the Namibian Chamber of Mines. Brandon maintains a close involvement with the World Nuclear Association and is currently Chair of WNA’s Nuclear Fuel Demand working group, responsible for forecasting global uranium demand scenarios to 2040. He is a uranium sector thought leader, having published numerous articles and appeared as a speaker at various industry events. He is an expert contributor on uranium to the UN Economic Commission for Europe. Brandon’s African voluntary roles have included serving as a Trustee for Save the Rhino Trust Namibia and Trustee of the Erongo Development Foundation. Bannerman Resources is an ASX and OTCQB-listed uranium development company that is focused on the Etango-8 uranium project in Namibia.

John is an economic geologist and corporate advisor with 25 years’ experience in exploration and mining across a spectrum of commodities and jurisdictions. He has worked in a number of African countries and is proficient in the evaluation of base metal, precious metal and energy minerals from early stage exploration through to feasibility and operation. John’s broad technical exposure and analytical business skills, honed in a senior advisory role, bring innovative solutions to The Mineral Corporation's clients. John was appointed Managing Director at The Mineral Corporation in September 2014, having joined the Board in 2006 and the Company in 2004. Prior to joining The Mineral Corporation, John’s geological career in Anglovaal Limited (latterly ARM) spanned 14 years of multi-commodity exploration, mining and due diligence roles for the Group’s operations and New Business initiatives across Sub-Saharan Africa. The Mineral Corporation is a leading senior advisor to the African and International minerals business, providing a unique combination of technical and financial skills and experience in mineral exploration, mine development, mine optimization and value creation across a diverse range of commodities and geographies, and for a diverse range of African and International minerals industry clients.

Prior to joining ENSafrica in 2013, Andries was a partner in the tax and legal practice of one of the big four accounting firms, with 15 years’ experience, where he held the positions of the Head of Corporate Tax and the Head of Energy and Natural Resources Tax. Andries specializes in corporate and international corporate tax consulting and tax dispute resolution assistance.  His experience includes advising companies (across various industries) on the tax implications applicable to a broad range of transactions, including corporate restructures, M&A transactions (tax due diligence investigations and tax efficient transaction structuring advice), private equity transactions and financing/funding arrangements. From a tax dispute resolution perspective, Andries assists companies in responding to SARS audits/investigations, preparing and lodging objections and appeals, alternative tax dispute resolution and tax court, High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal matters. Andries also has extensive industry experience in the mining sector, where he consults regularly to mining companies on a various range of domestic and international corporate tax, mining tax and mineral royalty-related matters.

Simone Naicker is a process engineer, a woman and a millennial – but above all she is an authentic and simple human who has a story to tell. Her journey in the industry began with a BEng Chemical Engineering Degree from the University of Pretoria. In her current role she is an Engineer in Training, in the coal processing industry, working for Exxaro Resources. During the 2 years Simone has spent in the industry she has acted in several leadership roles including Plant Foreman, Lead Value Chain Integrator and Senior Metallurgist during the commissioning phase of the Greenfields Belfast Coal Implementation Project. Simone says that she sees value in perspective and through engaging the industry from a variety of roles she believes that she will empower herself during this training period to further grow and contribute. 

Deshnee Naidoo is a mining executive with diverse experience spanning 22 years. She has progressed through both the operational and corporate ranks across various functions and commodities over multiple geographies. Deshnee started her career at Anglo American Platinum in 1998 where she occupied a range of positions, including Process Engineer, Strategic Long-term Planning Manager and Manager - Corporate Finance Manager. She was appointed Deputy Head of the Anglo American Group CEO’s office in 2009 . In 2011, she was appointed CFO of Anglo American Thermal Coal, where she managed two commodities (thermal coal and manganese) across three geographies (South Africa, South America and Australia).

Deshnee was appointed CEO of Vedanta Zinc International (VZI) and Copper Mine Tasmania (CMT), subsidiaries of Vedanta Limited, in 2014. She was responsibie for operations and projects in South Africa and Namibia, the now closed Lisheen Mine in Ireland, and CMT in Australia. In May 2018, Deshnee was appointed to the board of the Minerals Council South Africa. Deshnee was also appointed CEO of Konkola Copper Mine and Africa Base Metals for Vedanta Resources Limited in June 2018. During her time at Vedanta, Deshnee saw the execution of the iconic Gamsberg Project in the Northern Cape. During her two-year tenure at the Minerals Council, Deshnee championed the Women in Mining initiative to advance the representation and development of women in the industry. Deshnee left Vedanta in May 2020 to spend time with her family whilst she plans her next industry move.

Lindiwe Nakedi is Owner and Managing Director of Gubhani Exploration, a 100% black female owned surface diamond drilling company. She has 10 years’ experience in exploration drilling, contracting for companies such as Coal of Africa (Now MC Mining), Exxaro, Nkomati Mine of ARM, De Beers and South32. She served as Chairperson of WiMSA in 2017 and 2018 and is now Patron Liaison in the organisation. She currently sits on the Board of Trustees for the Mincon Transformation Trust. In 2018 she was selected as one of Top 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining by Women In Mining UK, making her one of 16 women picked in South Africa.

Dalu is a registered professional mining engineer with more than 16 years’ experience in the South African mining industry, ranging from technical and operational management roles to executive director level. Previously an Operations Director/COO of a JSE-listed mining company (Village Main Reef), where he, amongst others, led some operational turnaround projects. He is currently Executive Chairman of Letaba Elihle Investments, a mining investment and advisory company based on an owner-operator model. Dalu also sits on the boards of other unlisted mining and exploration companies and is a member of the SAIMM and Association of Mine Managers of South Africa (AMMSA). Has previously given presentations at the World Antimony Conference in China and at the London Gold Day. Dalu holds the following qualifications: BSc.Eng (Mining) and an MBA (Wits).

Eugene graduated with a B.Tech degree in metallurgical engineering from the Tshwane University of Technology in 1997 and subsequently worked as metallurgist, senior metallurgist and operations manager at various companies including Samancor Chrome and Impala Platinum. During this time he also obtained an MBA from North West University.

Since 2005 he has been consulting to the minerals beneficiation industry throughout Africa and the Middle East. He has been involved in a number of Coal, Gold, Platinum, Chromite and Base metals projects in assisting client teams throughout the project lifecycles and disciplines.

Currently he is CEO at Vanadium Resources (VR8) who are in the process of furthering the Steelpoortsdrift Vanadium project. As a registered Pr. Tech. Eng. with the Engineering Council of South Africa, as well as member of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and Mine Metallurgical Managers Association of South Africa, he qualifies as a competent person under JORC. Eugene was intimately involved with preparing the recent scoping study results of VR8 and is spearheading the completion of the company’s feasibility studies towards production of high purity vanadium pentoxide from the Steelpoortdrift Vanadium project in Limpopo, South Africa.As a result of his exposure to all aspects of mining and processing projects he is a strong supporter of sustainable and responsible mining practices.

Jan is an entrepreneur and a seasoned CEO of several successful private and public companies. Jan was responsible for transforming Pan African Resources PLC from an explorer to one of the best dividend mid-tier mining companies of its day. Jan also formed ReThink Resources, a private company that within 2 years took from concept on paper two operating businesses: a junior gold refinery called Kusasa Gold Refinery and also built from scratch a copper SX-EW copper plant in Nababeep, South Africa (the first and only one in South Africa), where all was designed and built in-house. The copper business is housed in a separate vehicle called Cape Copper Oxide (Pty) Ltd which has been rebranded to Big Tree Copper Limited that intends to list on the ZARX exchange in South Africa in the next four months and offers the only pure ‘eco-friendly’ copper exposure in South Africa to investors. Big Tree also recently acquired the O’Okiep Copper company that was formed by Newmont in 1937 to mine copper in the area. Big Tree Copper produced the first plate of A-grade copper in the area in September of 2020 – 15 years since the last copper production took place in the region. Since September, additional capital has been invested to expand the plant. The operation is unique in that it rehabilitates old mined waste rock dumps without producing any waste product and in the process restoring the historical mine waste landscape to the natural environment that existed before mining took place in the area. In this way Big Tree not only provides copper to drive the green economy but also cleans up and restores the environment. And we do this whilst paying not less than 30% of our pre-growth profit as a dividend. The business is set to grow from 1500 tons of copper per annum to 6000 tons of copper within the next three years.

Jan is an entrepreneur and a seasoned CEO of several successful private and public companies. Jan was responsible for transforming Pan African Resources PLC from an explorer to one of the best dividend mid-tier mining companies of its day. Jan also formed ReThink Resources, a private company that within 2 years took from concept on paper two operating businesses: a junior gold refinery called Kusasa Gold Refinery and also built from scratch a copper SX-EW copper plant in Nababeep, South Africa (the first and only one in South Africa), where all was designed and built in-house. The copper business is housed in a separate vehicle called Cape Copper Oxide (Pty) Ltd which has been rebranded to Big Tree Copper Limited that intends to list on the ZARX exchange in South Africa in the next four months and offers the only pure ‘eco-friendly’ copper exposure in South Africa to investors. Big Tree also recently acquired the O’Okiep Copper company that was formed by Newmont in 1937 to mine copper in the area. Big Tree Copper produced the first plate of A-grade copper in the area in September of 2020 – 15 years since the last copper production took place in the region. Since September, additional capital has been invested to expand the plant. The operation is unique in that it rehabilitates old mined waste rock dumps without producing any waste product and in the process restoring the historical mine waste landscape to the natural environment that existed before mining took place in the area. In this way Big Tree not only provides copper to drive the green economy but also cleans up and restores the environment. And we do this whilst paying not less than 30% of our pre-growth profit as a dividend. The business is set to grow from 1500 tons of copper per annum to 6000 tons of copper within the next three years.

Dr Sakhile Ngcobo is a seasoned executive with extensive experience in the mining industry. His experience covers wide ranging areas, including corporate affairs, mineral trading and community development. He worked for Anglo American for 18 years, 10 of which were at De Beers Consolidated Mines as Head of Corporate Affairs. While at Anglo, he was a member of the company’s Zimele enterprises development programme and participated in the establishment of Mondi Zimele as well as De Beers Zimele. In addition, he co-authored the Anglo American Socio-Economic Impact Assessment Toolbox. He is the Executive Director and founder of South African Seaways, one of the largest shipping companies. Dr. Sakhile is also a founder and executive chairman of Mirospan Mining, a 100% black owned mining services and investment company. He is also a Director of Canyon Coal. He sits on the board of African Thunder Platinum, a mining and exploration company. Sakhile holds a PhD from Wits Business School with a focus on reputation management in the South African mining industry. He is passionate about the participation of youth in mining and the black industrialists programme.

Mr. Mikhail Nikomarov is an entrepreneur and African energy expert who has worked on strategic and operational energy issues across four continents, including eight African countries.  Prior to founding Bushveld Energy, Mikhail spent 6.5 years with McKinsey & Company in Moscow and Johannesburg, advising national governments, utilities and manufacturers on growth strategy and policy and leading operational turnarounds in the power sector. In 2015, he co-authored the McKinsey & Company’s report "Brighter Africa: the growth potential of the sub-Saharan electricity sector." Prior to joining McKinsey, Mikhail worked as a banker in the US financial sector providing funding to mid-cap corporate clients. His other published work covers the topics of international trade and national competitiveness. He holds an MBA from INSEAD (France), an Economics Diploma from the London School of Economics (UK) and two B.A. degrees in History and in Economics from the University of Massachusetts (USA).

Sifiso Musa Nkosi is the Executive Chairperson of Ntuthuko Exploration & Mining, a junior mining company currently exploring anthracite coal mining in KwaZulu-Natal. Ntuthuko has mineral rights over various tenements in KwaZulu-Natal. The company currently represents/has relations with various tribal councils in the Ngonyama Trust. Sifiso has 12 years’ experience in the mining industry, having previously served as a board member for Isiphenduko Holdings, a joint venture company with Sephaku Cement. He sits on various boards including YIMSA (Youth in Mining South Africa), a youth mining lobby organization. He is also co-founder of the Junior Miners Forum, an African junior miners chamber with a national footprint representation. He currently serves as a member of the DMR’s Junior Miners Secretariat Committee chaired by Godfrey Oliphant - the Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources. Sifiso is a staunch believer in the South African junior mining sector being a catalyst for transformation into a sunrise industry.  He is a partner of the Coniston insurance product, which is currently the only insurance guarantee product open to mining permit applications. He is also a partner of Rands 2 Cents, the only market training product aimed at surface owners and mining affected communities.  He holds an Information Technology Diploma, a Project Management certification and a Business Analysis qualification. 

Sipho Nkosi’s professional journey has enabled him to develop vast experience in the energy and coal sectors, both locally and internationally.

Sipho has recently retired from Exxaro Resources Ltd having served as its CEO since November 2007. Exxaro was born out of a merger between Kumba’s coal, mineral sands and base metals assets and Eyesizwe Coal, where Sipho was one of the core founders and served at the helm. Preceding this, Sipho was the Country Manager of ABB Alstom Power (SA), having previously worked with Anglo Coal and Ingwe. His four-year stint at Anglo Coal in the International Marketing Division provided the ideal backdrop for him to take on the key portfolio of Marketing Manager responsible for International Coal Marketing at Ingwe. This position involved extensive travel and provided Sipho with an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the coal industry worldwide.

The insightful path that his career has traversed has enabled him to play a pivotal role in the broader mining industry. Sipho is a Past President of the Chamber of Mines of South Africa and has been serving on the Executive Council of the Chamber of Mines since November 2006. Prior to his appointment to Council, he played a meaningful role as a member of the Chamber’s Collieries Committee.

In addition to Sanlam, Sipho continues to serve on numerous Boards of Directors of blue chip companies.

“Today it’s an investment, tomorrow it changes a country.”

Upon reflecting on his impending retirement, this profound ethos instilled a renewed purpose in Sipho – to build an investment company whose first and fundamental premise is to do good and to look for broader societal benefit and long term value. Thus, together with a few like-minded business partners, Talent10 was formed in 2012 under the stewardship of Sipho Nkosi as non-Executive Chairman. With this key developmental philosophy as its foundation, Talent10 strives to create or acquire businesses that have long term sustainability and job creation accelerators as its key tenets.

Education and ongoing learning remains close to his heart. According to Sipho, “Further study after school is not the end of your growth. The pace of growth and change we are experiencing means that by the time you have finished studying, the world would have changed and you will need to reinvent yourself. Keep reading; keep learning”. Sipho holds a BCom (University of Zululand), BCom (Hons) (Econ) (Unisa), MBA (University of Massachusetts, Boston) and a Diploma in Marketing Management (Unisa). In addition to this, Sipho went on to complete the Advanced Management Programme at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

Over the years, business at large has bestowed a number of prestigious awards on Sipho in recognition of his ongoing contribution as an astute business leader. After being announced as the Master Entrepreneur of the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Award 2012, Sipho went on to represent South Africa in the Global Awards event hosted in Monte Carlo.

The Afrikaans Handelsinstituut also recognized Sipho with the Tinie Louw Award for outstanding Business Leadership in 2013. The South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM) presented Sipho with the Brigadier Stokes Memorial Award in 2015, for his substantial contribution to the South African minerals industry over many years as well as for his leadership role in the South African society. At their recent Corporate Dinner celebrating 40 years of changing the transformation landscape, the Black Management Forum honored Sipho with their most coveted Black Excellence Leadership Award.

Lili Nupen is a founder of Nupen Staude de Vries Incorporated, a boutique law firm specialising in construction, mining and environmental law. She has extensive experience in the environmental and mining legal regulatory arena. Previously, Lili was a senior associate at Bowman Gilfillan for three years, and a director for over seven years at Malan Scholes Inc, specialising in mining and environmental regulatory law practice. She has a deep understanding of the South African mining industry and enjoys well-established relationships with its regulators. Lili has practical experience working on transactions involving both international and local mining and exploration companies throughout South Africa and Africa. She is currently assisting with the analysis of the new Mining Charter and the effect which it has on mining operations in South Africa.

Prince Nyati has been the Chief Executive Officer of Lemur Holdings since November 2017. Prince has over 15 years’ experience in energy and mining with a particular focus on project development and mergers and acquisitions. He has worked in several countries including Zambia, South Africa, India, Singapore and the USA under Shell Oil, Total Petrochemicals, Eskom, Tata Power and Oreport. As group head of Tata Power, Prince evaluated over 100 coal assets and over 50 power opportunities in 30 countries. He served on the Board of Directors at Cennergi and the Tsitsikamma and Amakhala Wind Projects. He has led the development of numerous infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan Africa and facilitated transactions worth approximately $1.5 billion in Zambia and South Africa. Prince holds a BA from the University of Zambia and an MBA in Corporate Finance from the University of Houston.

Godfrey Oliphant was born in Warrenton Northern Cape Province. After completing high school in the North West Province, he pursued further studies in Economics.

He has held senior positions in South Africa’s trade union movement, including that of NEC member of the National Union of Mine Workers and Vice President of Congress of South African Trade Union COSATU, amongst others. He is currently serving as a member of the Central Committee (CC) of the South African Communist Party.

He became a Member of the first democratic Parliament in 1994. Has a long and illustrious career that included holding of several key positions and Chairmanships of Portfolio Committees including Labour, Science and Technology, Public Works and Communications. He also served as a member of the Portfolio Committee on Minerals and Energy for 10 years (1994 to 2004).

He was elected the Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources on 01 November 2010.

Helen is a qualified economic geologist with over 30 years’ experience in various commodities. She graduated cum laude from Stellenbosch University in 1985 and commenced her career at Gencor in Wits gold exploration. She joined Pangea Exploration (Pty) Ltd in 1994, a private company which has been successful in discovering and assisting in developing new mines throughout Africa. Helen was a Director and shareholder of Pangea for almost 20 years. During this period, the small team was responsible for the discovery of a number of world-class deposits. In 2012 Pangea affiliated with private equity company Denham Capital International, providing analysis and technical evaluation of prospective mining investments in Africa. In 2018 a new company, PanEx Resources, was formed to continue the discovery, exploration and development of mines globally. Helen has had representation on numerous Boards and technical committees of various global exploration and mining companies.

Born in Egoli, South Africa, “the City of Gold”, Dr Fiona Perrott-Humphrey spent six years in financial journalism and academia in South Africa before moving to the UK in 1986. For the next 17 years Fiona was consistently rated as one of the top investment analysts in mining for major financial institutions in the City of London, ending up as Head of European Mining Research for SSMB, part of Citigroup. In 2003, Fiona set up her own consultancy to continue her favourite aspects of a mining analyst’s job. In 2006 she formed AIM Mining Research and together with ex AngloGoldAshanti C.O.O. David Hodgson and geologists Gordon Wylie, Peter Mellowship and Jan-Marten Huizenga, has published "Understanding Junior Miners" available as an ebook from www.aim-mining.com. The book aims to help investors, fund managers and AIM mining companies understand the specialist geological and mining issues facing early stage juniors in order to interrogate and analyse them. Fiona continues her role as adviser to Chairmen, Non exec’s and CEO’s of mining companies particularly in relation to investor perceptions and strategy. She fits in her consulting work, including two days a week with NM Rothschild, around hiking, gardening and travel.

Dr Phosa qualified with a Bachelor of Law degree (Mercantile Law) then Baccalaureus Procurationis, from the University of the North (BProc LLB (UNIN)) and later was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Law Degree (PhD (HON) in Law) from Boston University, USA in 1995. He served his legal articles of clerkship at Godfrey Rabin Attorneys from 1979 to 1981.  He subsequently established the first black-owned law practice in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga in 1981 under the name Phosa, Mojapelo and Makgoba Attorneys and worked as a partner until 1985.

In 1985, Dr Phosa, was forced into exile by the apartheid government and a year later became the regional commander in Mozambique of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC).  In 1990, he was one of the first four members of the ANC that returned to South Africa from exile after the unbanning of the party. After the first democratic elections in 1994, he was appointed by Nelson Mandela as the first Premier of Mpumalanga.  He held this position until 1999 after which he became a member of the National Executive Committee of the ANC. At the ANC’s 52^nd National Conference in 2007, Dr Phosa was elected Treasurer General, a position he held until 2012. Dr Phosa is the chairman of various boards, including Jubilee Platinum, SMEC, Hans Merensky, Vuka Timbers, Renaissance Capital, Bauba Platinum, and MCLI to name a few. 

Dr Phosa was the only recipient to receive two awards at the African Achievers Awards in Abuja, Nigeria on 8 July 2016.  The first award was for "Leadership Excellence in Africa" and the second was a "Lifetime Achiever" Award. Dr Phosa made history when he became the first man to be presented with an award by the African Women in Leadership Organisation (AWLO) at the 8^th edition of the AWLO Conference in Washington DC, USA on 18 August 2016.  Dr Phosa was awarded the “African Man of the Year” Award in recognition of his tireless efforts in showcasing and supporting the creativity of African women.

Mashale is the Managing Director of Shumba Energy and an executive focused on funding and developing energy projects in Africa. He has over 16 years’ experience in the mining and energy sector, conducting investment analyses and research and he has raised debt and equity finance for several projects in America, Europe and Africa. Mashale started his career as an Engineer with Debswana Diamond Company based at Jwaneng Mine in Botswana. He holds a Master’s degree in Engineering from the University of Sheffield and is a member of the United Kingdom Society of Investment Professionals (UKSIP) and the London-based Association of Mining Analysts (AMA).

Aleksander joined CRU Consulting in 2012 and currently heads CRU Consulting’s multi-commodity market research and advisory works for producers, consumers, financiers, governments and supply chain actors. Most recently, Aleks has led assignments in the following areas: diversification strategy and portfolio analysis; product and market entry strategy – where in the value chain do we want to be?; “green” energy and mobility futures, and implications for metal demand; implications of climate and carbon policy on processing and mining industry and host nations. Aleksandar was introduced to commodity markets at BP and OMV, where he worked on renewable energy joint ventures, feasibility studies in exploration and production and debated on industry-specific issues with the European governmental affairs office. Aleksandar is a Mechanical Engineering graduate from the University of Warwick and holds an MSc in Advanced Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London. Aleksandar is fluent in English, German and Serbo-Croatian, and competent in French.

Niël Pretorius has two decades of experience in the mining industry. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer designate of DRDGOLD on 21 August 2008 and Chief Executive Officer on 1 January 2009. After joining the company on 1 May 2003 as a legal adviser, Niël was promoted to the position of Group Legal Counsel on 1 September 2004 and General Manager: Corporate Services on 1 April 2005. Niël was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Ergo Mining Operations (formerly DRDGOLD SA) on 1 July 2006, becoming Managing Director on 1 April 2008.

Xavier has a MSc in Engineering Geology UMSA; Diploma in Mining and Exploration from the Montan University, Leoben, Austria, Graduate Diploma in Engineering and M. Eng. degree from Wits.
He has been in coal since 1977, established the Geological Survey’s National Coal Database (NCDB); was Genmin IT Exploration Manager and joined the Minerals Bureau, DME in 1995, as Chief Mineral Economist; Coal and Hydrocarbons. He was appointed Coal Senior Analyst, Wood Mackenzie, Southern Africa and since 2009 is consulting privately with XMP Consulting. He promotes South Africa’s coal mining industry within government and industry groups, lectures at Universities as well as companies on coal science, i.e. coal reserves, economics, quality control, marketing and clean coal technologies. He has extensive experience in reserves and resources. His main tasks are optimisation of coal utilisation and marketing, economic empowerment in coal, evaluation of coal reserves, implementation of clean coal technologies (CCTs) and impact of the use of fossil fuels. Xavier belongs to several local and international coal committees and groups involved in coal science and technology.

Vincent completed his primary and secondary schooling at Bontleng Primary School and Gaborone Secondary School respectively between 1968 and 1979. He thereafter travelled to the then Soviet Union (currently Ukraine) to study geology at Kiev Geological Technicon where he acquired a High National Diploma in Geology with Distinction in 1986. Upon completion of his studies Vincent joined the Regional Geology Division of the Botswana Geological Survey where he worked as a Technical Officer responsible for field geological mapping. Vincent travelled back to Ukraine to undertake further studies at Kiev State University and he successfully completed his MSc. (Geology) in 1993. Upon completion he continued working as a geologist at the Botswana Geological Survey where he rose from a junior geologist to head the Regional Geology Division.
In 2005 Vincent joined De Beers Prospecting Botswana as a Project Manager responsible for early stage exploration and evaluation of kimberlites in the Jwaneng and Orapa areas. His good knowledge of the geology of southern Africa coupled with his ability to learn quickly made him progressed through the ranks to the position of Geology Manager where he was responsible for technical reviews and targeting as well as giving direction to the operational diamond exploration teams.
In 2014 Vincent retired from De Beers to start his own geological consultancy firm at VinMarsh GeoConsultants as the Managing Director. The company gives geological consultancy and investment advice to private and public companies as well as individuals (farmers) in diamond, base metals, precious metals, coals and groundwater prospecting.

Kerwin has 20 years of minerals and energy resource industry experience in Southern and East Africa including being the Head of New Business for De Beers and was a founding director and Executive Chairman of Sunbird Energy Limited (“Sunbird”) in 2011. Sunbird is an ASX-listed (ASX:SNY) gas explorer and developer focused on southern Africa where limited domestic gas supply and growing energy needs have created significant opportunity for the development of large scale energy projects. Kerwin is also Managing Director of Umbono Capital Partners (Pty) Limited (“Umbono”). Umbono is a black-owned natural resources and energy investment and project development company that has been in business for over 17 years with a diverse portfolio of interests across the resources and energy sectors in South Africa, across Africa, Europe and North America. Kerwin was formerly a non-executive director of the South African Diamond and Precious Metals Regulator (“SADPMR”).  

Paul Ranamane holds a B Proc and LLB Degrees, Higher Dip. (Insolvency Practice) Dip. (Banking Financial Markets), Cert. (Competition Law), Cert. (Pension Law), Cert. (Notarial Practice) and a CIS. After completion of his articles, he worked as a Professional Assistant at Van der Venter Meiring Attorneys, where he gained extensive experience in aspects of corporate finance, commercial, litigation, insolvency, foreclosures, credit control, insolvencies and corporate litigation. Paul began practising as a director with Ranamane and Associates in 2001, a practice founded by him. His area of expertise and focus is in corporate litigation, commercial practice, civil litigation, mergers and acquisitions and administrative law. He also advises clients on local government legal matters. Paul is one of the founding Directors of Opal, and as such has been involved in mining since the company’s inception in 2012. He has been key in identifying assets for acquisition, acquiring greenfield projects, regulatory and legal compliance, capital raising and overall business strategy. He is also Opal’s representative at the Chamber of Mines.

Before moving to the UK, Laurence Robb was Professor of Economic Geology in the School of Geosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and between 2001-2005,  also Director of its Economic Geology Research Institute. He is currently Visiting Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford. He has worked for over 30 years on many the great mineral districts of the African continent and is currently involved in research on the metallogeny of Myanmar/Burma and also the Western Sahara. He is the author of the text book ‘Introduction to Ore Forming Processes’ that is widely used all over the world. He served a term as President of the Geological Society of South Africa in 1999-2000 and has also been a Vice-President for the African region of the Society of Economic Geologists. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, a Fellow of the Geological Society, a Fellow of the Geological Society of South Africa and a Chartered Geologist. Together with its co-founders, Ido Lekota, Archie Rantao and Sam Madiba, Laurence helped establish Lerama Resources in 2005 and is currently CEO of the company. For the past decade Lerama has targeted  the acid phase of the Bushveld Complex for IOCG style deposits and is currently exploring and evaluating 4 prospecting rights in the eastern Bushveld.  

Mr Robinson holds honours degrees in both accounting and financial planning and also holds a masters’ degree in financial management. Mr Robinson started his career at Deloitte and Touche as a member of the Financial Institution Services Team, where he specialised in private equity advisory services and where he discovered his passion for setting up new businesses. Upon admission as a CA (SA), he founded an audit and financial advisory practice called Du Toit, Minnaar and Robinson Inc., which specialised in transaction support, valuations, taxation and financial planning. In 2008, Mr Robinson joined Questco, South Africa’s largest independent resource corporate finance focused advisory boutique. The following year, he was promoted to an equity partner and director. Mr Robinson qualified as a JSE Approved Executive in 2009 and acted as Designated Advisor to a number of AltX listed companies through which he became a specialist in the field of corporate governance. He was involved in the equity raising that funded the Tshipi Borwa Mine project and officially filled the position of Tshipi’s inaugural Chief Financial Officer in November 2011 and subsequently became the Company’s Chief Executive Officer in February 2014. Mr Robinson is passionate about business, talent and leadership development.

Jacinto holds a BA (Hons)(Political Science) and a BSc (Hons)(Geology) from Gustavus Adolphus College in the USA, a Graduate Diploma in Engineering (Mining) from Wits University, a LLB (law) from UNISA and a MBA (Executive) from the University of Cape Town. He is an expert in mineral law and policy. He has over 20 years’ experience in mineral policy and legal research, policy and legislative drafting and implementation. In addition, he has over 13 years’ executive management experience in the public sector. From 2012 to 2014 he served as Special Advisor [Legal Advisor] to the Minister of Transport and the Minister of Energy, respectively. He is a Co-coordinator and Lecturer on Prospecting and Mining Law (LLM level) at the Wits University Law School (Mandela Institute). He is also Senior Lecturer (Honorary) at the Wits University’s School of Mining Engineering (SOME) where he lectures on the mineral policy and investment module. He has lectured on mining policy and contract negotiations at the United Nations, African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP) in Dakar, Senegal. Jacinto is the founder and Director of Mineral Investment Advisory Services (Pty) Ltd. He is an admitted Advocate and a member of the National Bar Council of South Africa.

Andries is PwC’s Africa Energy, Utilities and Resources leader and an experienced JSE accredited audit partner. He has been with the firm since 1997 and partner since 2007. He has experience in numerous stock exchange transactions, including IPOs, fund raisings, and reporting accountant work for acquisitions. He has a specific focus on mining clients across commodities and mining methods. Andries is the project leader for the firm’s SA Mine and Global Mine publications which gives him excellent insight into industry wide issues.  Although he has a specific focus on mining and construction clients, Andries also has a variety of cross industry exposure with previous involvements in retail, manufacturing, forestry, agriculture, banking and insurance clients. His core industries has given him the opportunity to work with cross border teams on a regular basis. 

Michelle B. Roth is the Founder and President of Roth Investor Relations, Inc. (RIR). She has over 30 years of experience working in the mining industry advising companies on strategic planning, corporate governance, compliance and marketing. She is also a successful business owner and entrepreneur who has successfully managed a global consulting business through multiple investment cycles.  Ms. Roth’s creative and strategic approach has turned RIR into a well-recognized North American IR firm focused on the mining industry. With a diversified client list, she has advised large, medium and small cap companies over the years. She works extensively with CEOs to objectively assess their company’s strengths and weaknesses in order to establish accurate and effective key messages and maximizing their market recognition. She also focuses on continually improving disclosure and corporate governance.  Ms. Roth launched her career on Wall Street and earned an MBA in Finance from Fordham University in New York City. She is also a former elected official.

Mr Rutherford has over 25 years’ experience in investment management and investment banking and currently serves as a non-executive director on the boards of four publicly listed and one private company.  He has extensive international experience and brings considerable financial insight from the perspective of the capital markets. Since November 2013, Mr. Rutherford has served as a Non-Executive Director of Anglo American plc, a FTSE100 diversified mining company and, since June 2020, has served as Non-Executive Chairman of Centamin plc, a UK-listed gold mining company.  He is also a director on the boards of Anglo Pacific Group plc, a UK-listed mining royalty company, where he serves as Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Sustainability Committee; of GT Gold Corp, a Canadian-listed mining exploration company, where he serves as Lead Independent Director and Chair of the Audit Committee; and of the Tantallon Capital India Fund, a dedicated Indian equity investment fund.  Formerly, he was Chairman of Dalradian Resources Inc., which is developing the Curraghinalt gold deposit in Northern Ireland, until its takeover in September 2018 by Orion Resource Partners. Between 1997 and 2013, Mr Rutherford was Senior Vice President of Capital International Investors, a division of Capital Group, a long-established US-based investment institution, where he had responsibility for investments globally in the mining and metals industry. Prior to joining Capital Group, he spent over ten years as an investment analyst for HSBC James Capel in New York, covering the South American mining and metals industry, and for Credit Lyonnais Securities (formerly Laing & Cruickshank) in both New York and London. Mr Rutherford obtained a BSC (Econ) in Economics & Computer Science from Queens University Belfast in 1980 and an MA (Econ) in Development Economics from the University of Sussex in 1981.  He is also an alumnus of the London Business School.

Allan graduated in 1979 with an Honour’s degree in geology from the University of Johannesburg, followed by a Master’s degree from the Potchefstroom University, South Africa. He was subsequently employed in the coal section of the Geological Survey of South Africa until he was recruited by Rio Tinto where he worked from 1982 until 2000.

During this period, Allan focused on mineral exploration mainly in Southern Africa, and gained extensive experience in various fields of mineral exploration including platinum, gold, diamonds, coal, iron ore, manganese, base metals, industrial minerals and other metals and minerals. He was responsible for the management of most of Rio Tinto’s exploration projects in South Africa at the time and played an integral part in various discoveries which were brought to account. In later years he was appointed Business Development Manager - Africa for Rio Tinto and held this position until electing to establish own consultancy in 2000.

Allan’s services were rendered to numerous large and small mining and exploration companies and were focused both locally and abroad on project generation and management, due diligence and evaluation studies on various potential mining opportunities, as well as specializing in mineral tenure in SA. As founder and past president of the Foreign Investors Mining Association, he played an active role in formulating the new mineral legislation in South Africa.
Over the past few years Allan has discovered, promoted and managed a variety of mineral projects including the Doornhoek fluorspar project at Zeerust in South Africa (world’s largest fluorspar resource), the Estima Coal Project in Mozambique (a world class coal deposit exceeding 1.3 billion tons of coal), and initiated and drilled a major manganese project in the Kalahari, which is now the producing Kudumane mine. The first two projects are currently approaching the development stage.

Allan is a Fellow of the Geological Society of South Africa and is professionally affiliated to the South African Council For Natural Scientific Professions.

Allan is a geologist with over 5 years’ experience in the field of mining and exploration. He holds a BCom degree from the University of Pretoria, a BSc degree from Rhodes University and BSc (Hons) in geology from the University of Pretoria. After having worked on various projects and commodities across Southern Africa he joined the team at SA Fluorite as the exploration manager, working on the world’s largest fluorspar resource, a position he currently holds. 

Mr Abubekir Salim is the Managing Director of Vunani Resources which he co-founded in August 2012. Also a Director at Rietvlei Mining Company, Executive Director at Mulungushi Mineral Resources- Copper, Non-executive Director at Londani Coal. He is former Chief Executive Officer for Sumo Coal - May 2008 – May 2012.Sumo company under Mr Salim’s tenure, has established a number of subsidiaries in drilling and exploration, coal mining, beneficiating and marketing companies. Holds a BSc (Honours) in Geology Engineering Degree from Kocaeli University and also an MSc Rock Engineering  from the University of Witwatersrand, School of Mining Engineering. Has experience in Mining, resources sector, extensive contact base in Africa, Middle East, Europe and in seeking early stage exploration.

Muhammad is an admitted attorney, Director in and founder of Tax Lexicon, a boutique tax law firm which started operations in January 2018. Muhammad has more than 23 years of tax and legal experience, both in delivering high-end tax solutions to clients, as well as in various leadership and executive roles. Until recently, Muhammad was Head of Tax for KPMG in Africa, a role which he held in conjunction with Head of Tax for KPMG South Africa. Muhammad also held the role of Head of Corporate and Head of Mining Tax for KPMG South Africa. During 2008-201l Muhammad was seconded as Head of Tax for KPMG Saudi Arabia where he led the Saudi tax team in achieving significant milestones, such as establishing annual client tax seminars, securing KPMG Saudi onto the Tax Committee for Banks and introducing Saudi females into the tax practice for the first time ever. On his return to South Africa in 2011, Muhammad was mandated to build KPMG’s corridor with the Middle East. Muhammad has achieved a number of “firsts” in his career,  including the first ever black tax partner in KPMG South Africa (which incorporates the old Andersen tax practice), the first ever tax partner to be appointed onto KPMG’s policy board and the first legal partner to be appointed onto KPMG’s executive committee in South Africa. Muhammad’s specialisation is in corporate and international tax, M&A tax, mining tax and tax dispute and resolution matters.

Dr Lars Schernikau studied at New York University and INSEAD in France before gaining his doctoral degree in energy economics with a focus on the coal business at the Technical University Berlin, Germany. Lars joined the commodity business in 2003 and before that he worked at The Boston Consulting Group in New York, USA and Munich from 1997-2003. As a co-founder, shareholder and former member of the supervisory board in the German-based, publicly listed, international coal marketing and mining companies HMS Bergbau AG and IchorCoal NV,Lars has founded, worked for and advised a number of companies in the coal and commodity sectors in Europe, Asia and Southern Africa. Currently, Lars focuses on further developing HMS’ global operations as well as marketing of energy and other commodities in Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe and the Indian subcontinent. Today, next to his operational work in the commodity industry, he regularly speaks at major energy and commodity conferences and workshops around the world. Lars advises selected governments, banks and conglomerates on energy policy. He has published two books: "The Renaissance of Steam Coal" in 2010 and “Why Coal will Continue to Power the World” in 2017, which focus on the role of steam coal for today’s energy market and analyzes global demand and supply in a world of increased sustainability requirements. He argues that coal will remain a key energy resource for decades to come and bridges the gap between the oil age and the future “new energy age”.

Hulme is a director of the firm and a mining attorney with over 20 years’ experience in the mining sector in South Africa and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. He has in-depth knowledge of mineral rights issues and BEE transactions in this industry. Hulme was previously the head of the mining practice at Werksmans Inc. and a director of the firm for eight years. He sits on the boards of various mining companies as a non-executive director and has a practical understanding of the industry, having begun his career as a Learner Official on the then Rand Mines Limited Harmony Gold Mine.

Keith is a geologist with over 20 years’ experience in the mining industry, spanning the mining value chain from exploration and evaluation, to feasibility and production. He is a mineral exploration and evaluation specialist with extensive experience globally and across Africa in multidisciplinary minerals projects. This experience includes tenure and permitting, geology, mineral resources and reserves, mining, processing, infrastructure, risk and financial analysis, environmental and social governance. Keith is currently the CEO of Fraser Alexander and has sat on the board of a public mining company and on several private boards of mineral exploration companies.

A qualified Mining Engineer with 24+ years’ experience in mine development, mining finance and mining operations in energy minerals, base metals, precious metals and industrial minerals. He started his career with Iscor Mining in coal, iron ore and titanium mining operations and mine development. He was part of the part of the team that developed the mining portfolio of Iscor Heavy Minerals, now owned by Tronox. He consulted to major mining companies in Africa, South America, North America and Europe in mine turnaround and optimisation including Newmont, AngloGold Ashanti, Kaiser Aluminium, Outokumpu and RAG Coal. He co-founded a mining contracting company that mined 1.5 million tons of coal per annum for Anglo Coal for 6 years and was a co-founder of ASX listed Universal Coal, where he developed the Kangala Coal Mine and coal project portfolio. He is a Director of MX Mining Capital Advisors, which advises mine developers, mine owners and mining investors on financing of mining projects. He is a board member of Maatla Energy, which is developing the Mmamabula coal mine and coal-to-liquids project in Botswana. Mike is currently working on the financing of mining projects for clients in energy minerals, base metals, precious metals and industrial minerals in Africa, Asia, America and Europe.

Olebogeng Sentsho is an entrepreneur with interests in mining and energy. Olebogeng is an alumni of the 2017 Mandela Washington Fellowship, the flagship programme for the Young African Leaders Initiative, run by the US State department, and she is currently completing her MSc in Mining Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand. She is the Chief Executive Officer at the Simba Mgodi Mining Incubation Fund, a development fund that supports emerging entrepreneurs in mining and mining services.
Olebogeng believes that a more structured and Afro-centric approach to mining will grow the African economy and enable Africa to benefit from the minerals it rightfully owns. Serving as the finance champion on the Deputy Minister of Mineral Resource's Technical Secretariat for the evolution of funding models for junior miners in South Africa, Olebogeng has both the technical and financial knowledge of the intricacies of funding junior miners. Her legal background gives her a unique edge as it allows her to structure deals with precision. A recipient of the inaugural "Outstanding Woman in Mining Award" at the Youth in Mining Business awards in 2016, the Winner of the "Leaders of Tomorrow" Award at the 2019 Mining Indaba, the Head of the Mining and Technical Engineering Services Sector at the Progressive Youth in Business Organisation and the National Convenor of the 2019 Youth in Mining Procurement Transformation Summit, Olebogeng is passionate about investment, the African economy, mining and socially responsible business practices. Olebogeng's short-term career objective is to catalyse the creation of South Africa's tertiary mining industry - where the industry will interact directly with raw minerals and beneficiate them.
Her long-term career objective is to create other industrialists throughout Africa who share the vision of a prosperous and economically-active continent driven by Africans for Africans. Olebogeng has been featured on ENCA, Power FM, North West FM, Motsweding FM CNBC AFRICA and she has served as a guest lecturer for the Master of Management class of 2017 on new venture creation and entrepreneurship at the University of the Witwatersrand Business School.

Walter Shamu has over 20 years of experience in developing and operating mines throughout Africa and Australasia.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mining Engineering and a Master’s degree in Rock Mechanics from Curtin University, as well as a LLB (Law) from Macquarie University in Australia.  In Australia, Walter has worked with Gold Fields, Western Mining and Henry Walker Eltin on gold, nickel and uranium mines and projects.  Within Africa Walter has held technical and corporate roles with Gold Fields, ERG and Taurus Gold.

Dion Shango was appointed as Southern Africa CEO on 1 July 2015, the first black African to be appointed to the role. Prior to his current appointment Dion acted as Deputy CEO and as Leader of PwC’s Energy, Utilities and Mining (EU&M) Group.
Since being admitted to partnership in 2008, Dion has led engagements on complex and multinational businesses and has serviced a number of large listed clients mostly within the mining industry. He has extensive experience reporting under IFRS and of financial reporting in the mining industry.
In addition to his experience in the mining industry, Dion has also enjoyed exposure to other sectors and industries throughout his career, by virtue of being involved in the audits of companies and organisations such as the South African Reserve Bank, Vodacom and MonteCasino.
In recent years, Dion’s client base has included Exxaro Resources Limited, Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited and Sasol Oil, amongst others.
Dion joined PwC in January 2000 after completing his studies at the University of Pretoria (B Com, Financial Accounting).

Charles Siwawa is currently employed as the Chief Executive Officer of the Botswana Chamber of Mines based in Gaborone, a position he has occupied since 2010. The Botswana Chamber of Mines exists to serve the interests of the mining industry in the country and to influence policy decisions and strategic intents within the government, non-governmental organizations and related bodies. Charles has an extensive background in the mining industry in Botswana dating back to 1982.

Errol is a geologist, registered with the South African Council of Natural Scientific Professionals. He has more than 25 years of industry experience across all aspects of exploration, mine development and operations with experience in precious and base metals. Errol has held positions in Anglogold, Cluff Mining, Metallon Gold, Clarity Minerals, LionGold Corporation and African Stellar Holdings. His senior executive roles have been on several boards of companies listed on the TSX, ASX and JSE.

John Smelt spent 15 years as a fund manager, initially specialising in the stock markets of Africa and the Middle East and then covering global mining. From 2003, John transferred to the corporate side, working for several mining companies including 3 new listings in London and latterly as Global Head of Investor Relations for Rio Tinto.

With almost 30 years of project management and business experience on the African continent, Ben is currently Managing Director of Piran Resources, a Tin, Tantalum and Tungsten producer. He began his career in resources, managing mining and exploration projects in Malawi, Zambia and Angola. Subsequent to this he was General Manager for LSE listed Petra Diamonds in Angola, managed exploration projects for gold in Tanzania and Ethiopia and served on the boards of a number of public companies. He has an MBA from the University of Liverpool, focusing on western business on the African continent and is a Fellow of the Institute for Leadership and Management.

Paul Smith is currently the Chairman of and a major investor in Trident Royalties Plc (TRR.L). Trident is a diversified royalty company which is focused on base and battery metals. TRR.L is listed in London. He is also a Non-Executive Director/Shareholder of Echion Technologies. Echion develops and manufactures superfast-charging li-on battery materials. Paul is the founder of Collingwood Capital Partners AG (September 2020-Present); Collingwood invests within resources, technology and energy transformation. Previously, he was the Head of Strategy at Glencore Plc (July 2011 - July 2020). While at Glencore, Paul also served as the Chief Financial Officer of its subsidiary, Katanga Mining Limited (January 2019 - June 2020). Katanga is the world's largest cobalt mine. Paul has also held Non-Executive Director positions at Glencore Agriculture Limited (June 2016-June 2019) and Lonmin PLC (June 2013 - June 2015).  Prior to Glencore, he was a buy-side analyst at Marshall Wace Asset Management (October 2004-July 2011) and Director of Equity Research at Credit Suisse. Mr Smith is a graduate of Oxford University and a qualified Chartered Accountant (ICEAW).

Maritz is Alphamin’s Chief Executive Officer and has 20 years’ experience in African mining and corporate finance. Prior to joining Alphamin, he was CEO of Denham Capital’s African mining platform, Pangea, and CFO of Metorex Limited, a mid-tier mining group with operations across Southern Africa.

James is the Group Executive for Operations and Advisory and is responsible for DRA’s Minopex business unit. James has over 20 years’ experience in the mining, industrial and financial sectors where he has held various consulting, investment advisory and operational leadership positions. In his current role, James drives the growth and development of DRA’s contract operations and maintenance business. He is also responsible for the newly formed DRA Advisory business and oversees the innovation agenda across the Group.James holds a Bachelor of Science, Engineering (Chemical Engineering) from the University of Witwatersrand.

Alan Smith is considered a veteran in the global mining sector with more than 43 years’ experience. His career in mining includes an impressive 27-year stint with Anglo/DeBeers where he managed a number of diamond mines and held the title of Chief Executive for AngloGold’s South African Operations. Alan is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Blyvoor Gold Proprietary Limited where he is heading up the re-opening of the once-famous Blyvooruitzicht mine after the devastating effects of its most recent history. During his career, Alan has been involved in a range of mining aspects such as exploration, project management, feasibility studies, financing, commercial optimisation and team and executive management. Alan is experienced in gold, coal, diamonds, tin, tantalum, silver, copper, nickel, niobium, fluorspar and various other metals and industrial minerals.

Employed at Impala Platinum since January 1995, Fahmida started her engineering career in the Precious Metals Refinery. After 5 years of production experience, Fahmida expanded her expertise in the Projects department where she was responsible for the optimisation and expansion projects as PMR Technical Manager for 10 years. Fahmida was then transferred to the Base Metal Refinery as the BMR Technical Manager for a further 3 years. The last almost 4 years has been focussed on beneficiation projects, fuel cells being a key focus area as the Fuel Cell Coordinator for Implats. After being an honorary delegate at the Mining Phakisa last year, Fahmida now sits on various committees (The IDC Steering Committee that is responsible for developing a South African Fuel Cell Roadmap; the Technical Steering Committee for HySA Systems and the Technical Steering Committee for HySA Catalysis) and continues to add value in the beneficiation of South African minerals and to the nascent Fuel Cell Industry. 

Yathin is a seasoned corporate and investment banker, qualified in engineering and project management. Since 1997, he has managed large power, infrastructure and mining projects while serving major corporates such as Eskom Holdings SOC, Rand Merchant Bank, AngloGold Ashanti and BNP Paribas (France’s largest bank).

He was responsible for starting-up, resourcing and growing BNP Paribas’ South African Metals & Mining business into a significant profit generator for the bank. He successfully managed this business unit for 6 years before venturing off on his own to start North Star Consulting & Coaching in 2017, driven by a passion for people and a desire to build leadership excellence in mining.

North Star’s primary purpose is to contribute to developing a thriving and sustainable junior mining sector in South Africa. The company advises on new business development, M&A, procurement, capital raising, marketing and stakeholder management. In addition, North Star runs corporate finance skills training courses and is developing a leadership coaching workshop designed for corporate managers and team leaders.

Yathin holds a BSc Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of KZN and a Master’s degree in Engineering Management from the University of Pretoria.

68. BSc Metallurgy (Swansea), MSc Management (Warwick) and CIMA. 22 years working in Africa. 28 years mining and exploration. Built  Zari Exploration Ltd over 10 years to sale for $18.5m in 2012 (11,000% and 2,000% profit for investors). General Exploration Ltd built up over the last 3 years focused on early stage gold exploration in the  Lake Victoria Goldfield in Tanzania.

Richard was born 1959 in Johannesburg. He graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1983, he was admitted as an attorney in 1986. He is a Director at Richard Spoor Incorporated Attorneys (RSI) and is based in White River, Mpumalanga. Throughout the 1980s and in the early 1990s, Richard represented individuals and trade unions and civic organizations engaged in the struggle against apartheid. Post-1994 his work has been focused on land rights and on the impact of mining on workers and local communities. The firm is responsible for a number of precedent-setting cases pertaining to communal land rights and compensation for occupational injuries and diseases. RSI is increasingly focused on large and complex litigation, typically class actions, with a focus on health and consumer rights. Noteworthy settlements achieved include: the settlement achieved with Gencor in 2004 that led to the establishment of the Asbestos Relief Trust, which compensates former asbestos miners suffering from occupational lung disease; the 2019 settlement reached with members of the SA gold mining industry that led to the establishment of the Tshiamiso Trust that compensates former gold mine workers suffering from silicosis and silico-tuberculosis; in 2021 RSI and the LRC interdicted off shore oil and gas exploration on the South African east and west coasts. Ongoing matters include: litigation on behalf of the “Xolobeni” community to assert their rights to have a say in mining and other forms of development on their land - “The Right To Say No” campaign; a class action against Tiger Brands in respect of an outbreak of listeriosis in 2017/18; litigation against Sasol Coal on behalf of former coal mine workers with Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis (CWP) and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD); community/mine disputes involving Samancor Chrome, Tharisa Minerals and Kumba Iron Ore; settlement of land claims over parts of the Kruger National Park; litigation pertaining to the governance of land reform and land restitution trusts and communal property associations. Richard is known to be fairly outspoken on matters of concern to him.

Rob has vast experience in mining, specialising in mining finance. He started his career as a chartered accountant, becoming a partner of Ernst & Whinney before leaving in 1986 to co-found Rhombus Exploration Limited. Since then, he has been involved in the mining industry worldwide and has held executive and non-executive directorships in companies listed in South Africa, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. He has participated in the evaluation and development of several new mining projects and companies including Rhovan, Ticor Titanium, Pangea GoldFields Limited, Southern Mining Corporation Limited (Corridor Sands), Metorex Ltd and Zimbabwe Platinum Mines Limited. Rob is currently Chairman of Pangea Exploration (Pty) Ltd which company provides information and analysis to Private Equity finance within Africa.

At age 43, as a minerals trader from a mining family, Bruce saw potential in Central Africa for small mining and processing opportunities. In 1996 his first mining opportunity was at Luisha Mine in the South West DRC - a three-year partnership with the Government mining company, Gecamines. He was involved in developing simple mining techniques for the extraction and beneficiation of copper and cobalt oxides and furnacing the oxide concentrates into “alliage rouge” granules for export. Gecamines took over the management in 1999 at the end of the contract period. In 1999 Bruce moved to Rwanda and developed beneficiation systems for cassiterite (tin oxide), wolframite (tungsten), niobium and tantalum oxides. He developed and installed a tin smelter in 2002 in Gisenyi, Rwanda, exported refined, low-lead tin, produced tantalum and niobium-rich concentrates and slags and developed markets in China, Malaysia and SA for the end products. Bruce then obtained mining concessions in North Western DRC (one of which, Bisie Mine, is now listed on the Toronto ASX as an asset of Alphamin) and Rwanda. In 2012, he returned to SA to develop two abandoned mining areas for Incubex Minerals (Ltd) - Maxima Silica in Boshoek near Rustennburg and Namaqua Wollastonite in Garies near Springbok. Both mines, after various closures during their life, are now operating successfully.

Bertie Strydom is a Senior Project Development Manager in the New Industries Business unit at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). He is currently involved in the energy storage industry development and associated project developments. His experience includes industry development, project development and implementation, project financing, system engineering, operational management and logistics engineering. He joined IDC 1995 and gained experience in various roles and capacities. He also worked at the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) for a five-year period prior to rejoining IDC in 2010. Bertie has also worked in industries such as telecommunications, system engineering, quality assurance and venture capital. He is a qualified electronic engineer from the University of Pretoria and also holds an honours degree in Business Economics from UNISA.

Over the past 15 years Waheed has amassed expertise in numerous commodities across multiple continents. The combination of his chemical engineering and commerce degrees afforded him unique opportunities to develop experience in operational, technical and commercial roles. Waheed started his mining career at BHP Billiton and operated in various parts of the group’s local and international businesses. Until recently he successfully headed JSE-listed Wescoal Holdings. His array of experience includes building pilot-scale copper processing plants in Chile, involvement in a Turkish nickel heap leach mining operation and being part of a team which worked on establishing a manganese mine in Gabon. During his four-year tenure at Wescoal, the company increased revenues and profits fourfold. Along the way it acquired fellow JSE-listed miner Keaton Energy Holdings, started up greenfield and brownfield coal mining projects and lifted run-of-mine production from 1 million tons to more than 6 million tons per annum.

Mark Summers is responsible for the leadership and finance function of the company; for implementing long and short-term plans; and for communication to shareholders and other stakeholders. He joined Kropz in 2015. Mark has more than 20 years’ finance experience as a Chartered Accountant in the mining and resources industry, predominantly in Africa. His extensive career as a senior executive spans various financial positions at a number of companies including Anglo American plc and HSBC plc. Most recently he held the position of CFO of Gemfields plc. Prior positions included CFO of Amari Resources Ltd, MDM Engineering Group Ltd and TanzaniteOne Ltd. Mark holds an Honours Degree in Accounting from the University of Johannesburg.

Bernard is the Chairman of the annual Junior Indaba and Joburg Indaba as well as an Executive Director of the SBI. He is a Partner at To-The-Point Growth Specialists as well as a Partner in THINKspiration. He served as Non-Executive Director on the boards of Impala, Zimplats, Eqstra and African Rainbow Minerals Limited. Previous roles include Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Village Main Reef Limited and CEO of Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited. He is Chairman and Managing Partner of MMC (Manganese Metal Company) as well as a non-executive director of African Rainbow Energy Producer (AREP).

Bernard is the Chairman of the annual Junior Indaba and Joburg Indaba as well as an Executive Director of the SBI. He is a Partner at To-The-Point Growth Specialists as well as a Partner in THINKspiration. He served as Non-Executive Director on the boards of Impala, Zimplats, Eqstra and African Rainbow Minerals Limited. Previous roles include Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Village Main Reef Limited and CEO of Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited. He is Chairman and Managing Partner of MMC (Manganese Metal Company) as well as a non-executive director of African Rainbow Energy Producer (AREP).

John Teeling has been involved in natural resources for over forty years having started in the emerging zinc industry in Ireland. In that time he has established or co-founded and listed fifteen exploration ventures in minerals and oil including Kenmare, ASA Resouces and African Diamonds which found the Karowe mine in Botswana. He currently chairs four listed explorers, Botswana Diamonds, Connemara Mining, Petrel Resources and Clontarf Energy. Botswana Diamonds is exploring in Botswana and South Africa. It has a joint venture with Alrosa, the Russian Diamonds company. Connemara is active in zinc and gold exploration in Ireland. It has 40 licences and joint ventures with Teck Resources and Hendrick Resources. On a different note John has been active in the renaissance of Irish whiskey. He built three distilleries which were sold to Jim Beam and has subsequently built two large distilleries north of Dublin. John was a lecturer in finance for twenty years in University College Dublin (UCD). He holds degrees from UCD (B. Comm, M. Econ Sc.), the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (MBA) and he holds a doctorate from Harvard Business School.

From his beginnings in education to his career in Human Resources, Mike has gained extensive experience in people and business management in BHP and Impala, as well as CEO of Optimum Coal Holdings (prior to it being taken over by Glencore). Mike is the Chairperson and controlling shareholder of the Masimong Group and serves as Chair/Non-Executive Director at the Anchor Group, Rofles Holdings and the Richards Bay Coal Terminal. He is also a past president of the Chamber of Mines and serves on the Council of the Chamber. In keeping with his passion to leave a legacy for the next generation, Mike serves on the board of the University of Johannesburg.

Thabang is a commodities and mining analyst at Standard Bank Group (SBG) Securities, largely focusing on base metals and bulk commodities. She is also the South African Diversified Miners equity analyst.  Before joining SBG Securities, Thabang worked as an assistant Portfolio Manager in the resources team at the Public Investment Corporation. Thabang holds a Bachelor of Business Science degree and a Master of Commerce degree in Economics, both attained from the University of Cape Town. She qualified as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) in February 2016.

Madelein Todd holds the position of Chief Marketing Officer for Manganese Metal Company (Pty) Ltd (“MMC”) and she has been a member of the MMC team for over 20 years.  She studied Metallurgical Engineering at the University of Pretoria and spent the first number of years at MMC in a technical role, working on process efficiency improvements as well as product development projects for the high purity electrolytic manganese produced by MMC.  Madelein joined the Marketing Department first in the capacity of technical customer support and later as full time market analyst.  The global electrolytic manganese metal industry operates in a fairly obscure market, but due to MMC’s wide customer base and focused approach to market segmentation, Madelein holds a comprehensive understanding of this niche segment of the greater manganese market.  Electrolytic manganese has applications in special steels, flat rolled aluminium, lithium-ion batteries, welding consumables and selected chemicals.

Andrew is Head of Corporate Development at Zanaga Iron Ore. Andrew comes from a mining finance background, having been involved in multiple large-scale debt and equity financings, mergers, acquisitions and strategic partner processes involving more than $30bn of capital. Andrew is also intricately involved in developing the technical solution and business case for Zanaga’s 1MTPA iron ore pellet project, which is in the process of being finalised. Andrew holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Sciences with Honours in Finance and Economics from the University of Cape Town.

Praveer Tripathi, Senior Vice President of Atha-Africa Ventures (Pty) Ltd (A-AV), holds a BSc in mechanical engineering from Bharathiar University, India. He has more than 24 years’ experience in mineral exploration, project development and marketing of mineral opportunities globally, especially coal and manganese. He is well acquainted with various regulators of mining and minerals in Africa.

A-AV is a subsidiary of Atha Group, India, and the flagship company of the group in South Africa.

The mining right for its coal asset, Yzermyn Underground Coal Project, was received in April 2015 and executed in June 2016. Environmental authorisation and the water use licence were granted in June 2016 and August 2016 respectively by the Department of Environmental Affairs and the Department of Water and Sanitation. A-AV was also granted approval in terms of Section 48 of the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act, 2003 (Act No 57 of 2003) in November 2016 to mine within the Mabola Protected Environment.

Investment in this project by Atha Group was largely driven by a free trade agreement, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) association and other bilateral agreements, which invited Indian companies to participate and invest in specific sectors such as mining and beneficiation.

David has a PhD in geology and more than 40 years’ experience in research, exploration and mining. He is an entrepreneur and has been involved with many mineral resource projects from concept to development. He is a founding partner of private equity investor, AMED Funds.

MRG Metals Chairman Andrew Van Der Zwan has both domestic and international exposure in commercial and engineering with over 30 years of experience. In addition to his role at MRG Metals, he is currently Non-Executive Director of Argo Exploration.  His past experience includes 17 years at Exxon Mobil where he held various senior positions in the US, Australia, Africa and Europe within the worldwide operations.  Previous senior positions include Non-Executive Director of Gulfx Ltd and Titan Energy, General Manager of Fuels and Marketing at United Petroleum in 2011 and CEO of United Petroleum in 2013.  Andrew has been involved with MRG Metals since 2011, originally serving as Managing Director before moving to Chairman in 2013. Andrew holds a BA degree in Chemical Engineering (with Honours).

Andries van Heerden has been serving as the Chief Executive Officer of Afrimat Ltd since November 2006. He is also a member of the company's board of directors. Prior to serving in this role, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Lancaster Group (Pty) Ltd (2005), the Managing Director of Prima Quarries (Pty) Ltd. (2003-2005) and served in various other operational management roles, mostly in the mining and quarrying industries. Andries is well known for his visionary leadership and was instrumental in 2006 in the formation and listing of Afrimat on the JSE from the merger of Prima and Lancaster. Being a results-driven, performance-oriented people person, Andries is constantly investing time and energy in refining the business' strategy. He is passionate about people and leadership development and further enhanced his knowledge on these subjects when he attended the four-week "Advanced Management" programme in July 2017 at INSEAD, The business school of the World in Fontainebleau, France. With his extensive experience in strategic positioning, engineering, marketing and finance, Andries was humbled in November 2017 when he was named the winner of the masters' category of the Ernst & Young World entrepreneur of the Year award for the Southern African region.

Pienaar-Schalk (Pine) van Wyk is a qualified Metallurgical Engineer by trade, with a degree in Business Management and an MBA in Project Management. He has more than 25 years’ experience in the mining industry, encompassing roles on a Senior Operational, Exco Management and Directorship level.  His experience includes roles with AngloGold, Rio Tinto, Paladin Energy, Gecko Group, Celsius Resources (ASX-listed) and Namibia Critical Metals (TSX-listed).  Pine brings a wealth of project development experience and expertise to the African mining industry. He has played an instrumental role in achieving several strategic milestones which took exploration projects into production, some of which include Langer Heinrich Mine (Uranium) in 2005, Cape Cross (Salt) in 2011 and Okanjande (Graphite) in 2016. Pine has further helped junior mining companies progress their projects by managing feasibility studies and raising capital to advance projects. He has been involved in the following commodities over the last decade: uranium, cobalt, graphite, copper, tantalum, niobium, fluorspar, salt and rare earths.   In addition, he did a management buyout and birthed the Stewardship Group of Companies in 2018. Stewardship operates in the mining industry and provides drilling, engineering, construction and project consulting services. 

Jonathan is a partner and Deputy Head of the Mining Sector Group at Webber Wentzel. He has expertise in the regulatory aspects of and transaction structuring in the mining as well as oil and gas industries. He also advises resources clients on international investment protection in Africa and compliance with international codes of practice applicable to the resources industry. Jonathan has presented to South Africa's select committees on Mineral Resources, Trade and Industry and Safety & Security on legislation applicable to the natural resources and payments sectors.
He has extensive experience in developing structures which afford international investors protection under bilateral investment treaties as well as other instruments under international investment law. Jonathan has served as the lead external legal advisor in Africa for MasterCard International working closely with the New York, Singapore, Dubai and Johannesburg centers. He also has extensive experience in black economic empowerment transactions as well as localization/indigenisation transactions throughout Africa. He has advised on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative's international best practice models and contributed to the International Bar Association's Model Mine Development Agreement Project. Jonathan has an LLB degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Piet Viljoen started out as a lecturer at the University of Pretoria and subsequently joined SARB as an economic analyst. He joined Allan Gray Investment Counsel in 1991 as a portfolio manager and later moved onto Investec Asset Management in 1995. He founded Regarding Capital Management (Pty) Ltd in 2003 and is currently Chairman of the listed investment company RAC. He is also a Director of diamond mining company Transhex, and a portfolio manager with Boutique Asset Manager CounterPoint Asset Management.

Anthony is a mining entrepeneur and founding shareholder of VM Investment Company. He has been responsible for the identification and development of a number of mineral projects across Africa. He was the founding director and CEO of Australian listed Lemur Resources and remains a non-Executive Director of Bushveld Minerals.

Nick has over 25 years' experience in the mining industry. He is Executive Chairman of Arc Minerals plc, a London-listed mining group with interests in Europe and Africa.  Nick is also a consultant to Apollo Group, one of the largest private equity groups, Chairman of Fodere Group, a private company that has developed environmentally sustainable technology to extract high value minerals from ore and a director of Jangada Mines plc, listed in London. Previously Nick was CEO of Asia Resource Minerals plc, a FTSE-listed mining company, and was instrumental in successfully restructuring the group (formerly Bumi plc).  Nick was also Deputy Chairman of Berau Coal, Indonesia's 4th largest listed coal company.  Prior to this, Nick was a senior executive with Anglo American plc and De Beers. Nick has worked and lived in developed and emerging markets including the UK, India, SE Asia, Africa and South America.

Former CEO of Coal of Africa, John Wallington has in the past held the position of Global Chief Executive for the Anglo Coal division of Anglo American plc and has also held board positions with Firestone Energy Ltd and Keaton Energy Holdings Limited.

John holds a BSc in Mining Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.  He has participated in executive programmes at both the London and Harvard business schools.

Joe Walsh is a resources industry executive, mining engineer and geophysicist with over 25 years’ experience working for mining companies and investment banks in mining-related roles. Joe was the General Manager Corporate Development with PanAust and was instrumental in the evolution of PanAust from an explorer in 2004 to a US$2+billion, ASX 100 multi-mine copper and gold company. Joe also has extensive equity capital market experience and has been involved with the technical and economic evaluation of many mining assets and companies around the world.

John holds a Doctorate in Geology (PhD from now UKZN) and has worked in c. 26 countries, 20 of which were in Africa, mainly on alluvial and kimberlite diamond projects ranging from greenfields exploration through to large-scale production operations. Apart from consulting, John has also worked for a major and two junior diamond companies and has received two medals for his contribution to academic and economic geology in southern Africa. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of South Africa, a Life Member of SASQUA and the Geological Society of Namibia and a SAMREC Competent Person in primary and secondary diamond deposits.

Louis Watum joined Ivanhoe Mines in December 2014 as Managing Director of the company’s operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In March 2015, he was appointed to the additional role of General Manager, Kamoa Copper SA. Louis leads responsibilities for Ivanhoe Mines’ mine development activities now underway at the Kamoa copper discovery and the Kipushi zinc-copper-silver mine, both in the DRC. Prior to joining Ivanhoe Mines, Louis spent eight years assuming progressively senior responsibilities in the DRC’s mining sector. Between 2010 and 2014, he successfully led the development and commissioning of Randgold’s Kibali Project, which followed his work on the launch of Moto Gold Mines’ Moto Project from 2006 to 2009. Louis was previously the Operations Manager at the Yatela Gold Mine in Mali from 2001 to 2005. He holds a Masters of Science Degree from the University of Lubumbashi in the DRC.

Dr Williams is a Chartered Geologist and a Chartered Engineer. He has more than thirty years of experience in the mining industry ranging from senior positions in major mining companies through to junior exploration start-ups. He also has a strong financial background in major financial institutions. Tim has a PhD in Mining from Imperial College London following a geology degree from the University of Bristol. He has an Accountancy Diploma from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in the UK and attended the Financial Management Program at Stanford Business School in the USA. He was initially a Captain in the Royal Engineers. The mining companies he has worked in, both in technical positions and in corporate finance include, in South Africa: Gencor, JCI, De Beers Consolidated Mines and Southern Mining; and in the Americas and Africa with Golden Star Resources and MDN Northern Mining. Financial services organisations he has worked for include James Capel (a part of HSBC Bank), Lehman Brothers, and more recently as the mining specialist at Ernst & Young in London. Tim founded Andiamo Exploration Limited, which is working on gold and copper mineral exploration in Eritrea.

Mr. Williams is the Founder, President and CEO of Red Cloud Klondike Strike Inc. Mr. WIlliams has extensive experience in mining finance and management having previously held the positions of CEO of Victoria Gold Corp., Head of Mining Investment Banking at Blackmont Capital Inc. and a top-ranked mining analyst at TD Bank and other Canadian brokerage firms. Mr. Williams has been a Director of several emerging mining companies and was a founder of Agilith Capital Inc. (a fund) as well as Westwind Capital Inc. (a broker). He also serves as a director of the Denver Gold Group. Mr. Williams holds both a P.Eng. in Mining and an MBA from McGill University.

After completing a B. Com (Accounts and Economics) at the University of Cape Town he joined the investment world and worked as a gold analyst for Ed. Hern, Rudolph, JD Anderson (SBC Warburg) and ABN Amro. During an eight year period he was rated in the top three gold analysts in the Financial Mail survey and achieved top ranking in 1992.  He joined Imara Asset Management in 2008 and is the lead fund manager of the Imara African Resources Fund. It is a BVI registered, long only US Dollar fund that invests in listed mining, agriculture, oil and gas companies whose businesses are predominantly in Africa.

William (Bill) Witham has broad experience over a 30-year career working in the technical, commercial, marketing and financial fields of the international exploration and mining industry. Bill spent two years in the 1990s based in Africa as General Manager for World Geoscience Corporation. This gave him a broad perspective over many African countries where their geophysical surveys were conducted. Since then Mr Witham has worked for a number of international and Australian companies in Africa and Australia including DMC Mining (Congo), Waratah Resources (Congo) and Whinnen Resources Ltd (Cameroon and Namibia). Bill holds a Bachelor in Science with Honours in Geology from the University of Western Australia and is the CEO of the Australia-Africa Minerals and Energy Group (AAMEG).

Charles Young heads the Mining Sector Group at Bowmans. He specialises in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions and general corporate and commercial law. Charles has significant experience in domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, governed by both English and South African law, across the African continent, including in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Ghana, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Mali and Kenya. His clients include local and international mining houses, energy and resources companies, telecommunications, banking and insurance institutions and hospitality and gaming concerns. A recent transaction highlight for Charles was advising Harmony Gold Mining Company Ltd in relation to its USD 300 million acquisition of AngloGold’s remaining South African assets and related liabilities, including Mponeng.  For this transaction the firm received the accolade of Energy and Natural Resources Team of the Yearat the African Legal Awards 2020. Charles has an LLM from Yale Law School, USA and B.Com and LLB (Hons) degrees from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He is admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, an attorney at law in the State of New York and a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand.