Cynthia Carroll, CEO, Anglo American
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Control of Anglo Pt shifting
Brendan Ryan
Posted: Tue, 15 Jan 2008

[miningmx.com] -- IT'S been six months since former Anglo Platinum CEO Ralph Havenstein quit abruptly and there’s no sign a new CEO will be named anytime soon.

An Anglo American spokesman said he could give no indication when an announcement might be made about the appointment of a CEO.

Havenstein resigned after falling out with then newly-appointed Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carroll on the issue of safety after a string of fatal accidents at the group’s mines in the six months to end-June 2007.

Since he departed Anglo Platinum has been run by two “joint acting CEOs” - project director Duncan Wanblad and finance director Norman Mbazima.

In the interim Anglo American has continued to “creep up” its equity stake in Anglo Platinum which has now reached 76.1% compared with 74.75% at the end of June last year.

Opinion in the industry seems split over what the “true” status of the next Anglo Platinum CEO will be when appointed.

According to one platinum company executive: “Whoever gets the job will be a glorified chief operating officer (COO) reporting to the real CEO which is now Cynthia Carroll. The sooner Anglo drops this pretence that Anglo Platinum is a separately-listed and run corporation the better.”

Carroll is widely seen as the driving force behind the empowerment deals announced in September between Anglo Platinum and Anooraq Resources as well as Mvelaphanda Resources.

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But another platinum sector source reckons Anglo American would prejudice the interests of all Anglo Platinum shareholders should it weaken the power of the Anglo Platinum CEO in this way.

“This is a group that employs nearly 80,000 workers and has a market capitalisation of around R270bn. It should not be run as a division of Anglo by someone based in London. It needs someone in charge on the ground in South Africa.

“Should Anglo try to run it as a division out of London then you are likely to see the same kind of problems cropping up as are happening at Lonmin which is being run by CEO Brad Mills out of a London head office.”