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Gold Fields, one of the largest gold miners in the world, has announced the name of its new CEO, who will take charge at the start of 2024 after almost a year of searching.
The company, valued at about R201.7bn on the JSE, said on Monday that South African Mike Fraser would succeed interim CEO Martin Preece at the start of January, and that Fraser would be based in Johannesburg.
“We are delighted to have a seasoned executive of Mike’s talent join Gold Fields as the CEO,” Gold Fields chair Yunus Suleman said.
“He brings a rich and unique mix of global operational and corporate experience and his track record of collaboration in delivering superior results in productivity, safety and culture ideally place him to lead our management team in taking our business forward,” he added.
Fraser is currently the CEO of Chaarat Gold, which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in London and before that was the COO of South32’s aluminium, nickel, SA manganese and energy coal businesses.
Fraser, who became the CEO of Chaarat Gold in January 2022, obtained a BCom and an MBA from Unisa.
“It is indeed a great honour to join one of the world’s top gold mining companies, particularly one that has set the pace in so many areas, including operational performance, value creation and positive impact for its stakeholders,” he said.
Preece took over at the start of 2023 and will remain part of Gold Fields’ executive team.
Preece replaced SA mining veteran Chris Griffith, who fell on his sword in December following the unsuccessful bid to buy Canadian Yamana Gold.
Gold Fields’ proposal to acquire Yamana Gold in a R120bn all-share deal was criticised at the time by shareholders arguing that management was overpaying for an asset with limited growth potential.
Gold Fields was scooped to the potentially lucrative deal by a rival joint bid by Agnico-Eagle and Pan American Silver.
The company, under Preece’s interim leadership saw a change in strategy and entered into several joint ventures, instead of full takeovers of companies.
In May, the group formed a 50/50 partnership with Canadian company Osisko Mining to develop the gold project, which will require about R15bn in capital expenditure
In mid-March, Gold Fields and rival AngloGold Ashanti announced the creation of Africa’s largest gold mine in Ghana, sparking speculation of a possible merger between the two gold majors.
The joint venture brought together Gold Fields’ Tarkwa Mine and AngloGold Ashanti’s Iduapriem Mine, both of which are located near the town of Tarkwa in western Ghana.
In September, the miner, which has operations in SA, Peru, Chile, Australia, Canada and Ghana, reported a decline in its interim profit of more than a tenth following lower sales and production.
In the six months to end-June, profit was down 11.1% year on year to $474.6m, while gold production decreased 3.9% to 1.154-million ounces .
Lower gold volumes sold and higher operating costs more than offset the higher gold price, which hovered near record highs in March at just above $2,000 before cooling off.