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Harmony loses new business GM
David McKay
Posted: Fri, 15 Dec 2006

[miningmx.com] -- HARMONY Gold’s new business director, De Wet Schutte, has quit the company – a development that may rekindle concerns as to why the South African firm is failing to retain key employees.

Five senior managers, three of them board members, left Harmony in 2005, the difficult year in which Harmony failed in its bid to take over Gold Fields, and suffered the effects of a restructuring at its mines.

More lately, Harmony has shown signs of its old self, returning to profitability in the third quarter. However, the departure of Schutte, who could be considered a viable successor to CEO, Bernard Swanepoel, continues the perception that Swanepoel is isolated.

Amelia Soares, GM of investor relations, confirmed the departure was effective from the end of this month.

Harmony said on December 8 that Schutte had resigned as non-executive of Village Main Reef Gold Mining Company, a firm that Harmony controls. Harmony’s operations director Peter Steenkamp is to replace Schutte on Village Main’s board. But no mention was made of Schutte’s departure from Harmony.
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"with approximately 70-80% of the value of Harmony attributed to growth projects, we remain concerned about execution risk, especially following the departure of a number of high profile senior executives over the past few years," said Georges Lequime of RBC Capital Markets in a note dated 30 November 2006.

Schutte, who joined Harmony in May 2004, had spent seven years at Iscor in various positions including GM of corporate finance. Schutte joins Phillip Kotze, GM of investor relations as a Harmony alumni. In 2005, Ted Grobicki, Rick Menell, Ferdi Dippenaar, Brenton Saunders, and Frank Abbott also left the company. Abbott retains a non-executive post on Harmony’s board.

Swanepoel, who is currently travelling, has said in the past that Harmony had a relatively flat structure and therefore had fed South Africa’s mining industry with new talent. Pine Pienaar, CEO of Mvelaphanda Resources, was new business director of Harmony Gold.

It is thought Harmony will unveil management related announcements early in the new year.