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New chairman for Sallies
Brendan Ryan
Posted: Thu, 12 Jun 2008
[miningmx.com] -- IMPALA Platinum (Implats) non-executive chairman Fred Roux has been appointed non-executive chairman of struggling fluorspar producer Sallies with effect from the beginning of July.
The appointment is a positive development for Sallies which has been without a dedicated chairman since October last year. That was when chairman Tom Dale also took on the role of CEO when previous CEO Izak Marais quit abruptly.
Dale told Miningmx on April 18 that a new chairman would be appointed by the end of this year. He declined to identify the incoming chairman at the time but commented, “you will be pleasantly surprised when you find out who it is.”
Roux is a former executive director of Gencor and was heavily involved in the transformation of Alusaf.
He left Gencor in 1997 and set up a successful safari hunting business based on his game farm near Colesburg in the Karoo. He became a non-executive director of Sudelektra – which subsequently became Xstrata – and was appointed chairman of Implats in 2004.
Roux resigned from the Xstrata board last year because of a conflict of interest with Implats when Xstrata moved into the platinum business through the acquisition of Eland Platinum.
Roux commented, “ I had some spare capacity following my
resignation from Xstrata. I like to stay involved in the corporate world and two directorships works well for me. I would not take on a third. I spend 42 nights a year in Johannesburg as it is because of my commitments to Implats.“
Asked why Sallies, Roux replied, “I have been friends with Tom Dale for a long time. Gold mining companies do not appeal to me and neither do industrial companies.
“Sallies is a relatively small operation facing a number of challenges and that interests me.”
Roux declined to comment on the specific challenges facing Sallies and where he believed he could have particular inputs to the running of the operation.
“It’s too soon to comment on that. I need to meet the management team and get to know the operations although I have obviously had a good look at all the financial information available.”
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