Con Fauconnier, outgoing CEO, Exxaro Resources
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Fauconnier turns down Katanga offer
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Mon, 03 Dec 2007

[miningmx.com] -- CON FAUCONNIER, the respected South African mining veteran, will not join the merged Katanga Mining and Nikanor copper and cobalt company as it chairman, a reliable source said.

The well-placed source said Fauconnier had declined the offer tot be the non-executive director of the new merged entity to be called Katanga Mining, with its targeted output of 400,000 tonnes/year of copper from the combined assets in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Fauconnier, when asked for comment, declined to confirm or deny the news.

Fauconnier made it clear when he retired at the end of August as CEO of Exxaro Resources, the largest listed black-owned resources company on the JSE that he wanted to spend more time with his family and put something back into the domestic mining sector.

Fauconnier would have his hands full in effectively chairing a company of the magnitude of the merged entity, if and when that transaction is wrapped up, eating again into his family life if he’s to give the job his full attention.

The unsolicited offer to chair the merged entity came while he was on leave, he told Miningmx in October. He might have had more time to think through the offer and the demands it would entail.

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"I’ll step away if I can’t apply certain principles," he said earlier in November when asked about the offer from Katanga.

Fauconnier, who oversaw Anglo American buying out the iron ore assets in Kumba Resources and the listing of the remaining assets and tie up with Eyesizwe assets by Exxaro, has a strong operational focus and is unlikely to take easily to a passive role.

That would not rule out his involvement in smaller projects that would still give him plenty of time at home.

Fauconnier will spend time at the University of Pretoria as an “extraordinary” professor to assist the engineering department as it doubles capacity to address the growing skills shortage in the country amid a massive infrastructure boom and investment in mining projects.

“They asked me to become an extraordinary professor, so I’ll become involved in the post-graduate research programmes on an ad-hoc basis. There are a lot of issues there and I feel that’s where I can plough something back into the industry,” Fauconnier told Miningmx on Monday.

He is also starting up a consultancy business from home and is helping one or two smaller companies where he can.