[miningmx.com] – JOHAN Viljoen, drafted in to Lonmin in August on the crest of a much-vaunted operational turnaround, has resigned taking to five the number of executive committee or board members to announce plans to leave the company.
Viljoen, who was chief operating officer, had resigned “for personal reasons”, said Lonmin in an announcement to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). He will be temporarily replaced by Ben Moolman, currently head of the group’s business support office.
Given that Viljoen had in assuming the chief operating officer role replaced the president of mining Mark Munroe and executive vice-president of processing, Natascha Viljoen, Moolman now finds himself holding down three positions in the short-term.
Moolman, who has been appointing acting COO “for the time being”, was formerly COO of Glencore Xstrata’s platinum division. He was “ideally placed to continue the execution of our operational strategy,” said Ben Magara, CEO of Lonmin.
The resignation of Viljoen comes amid a number of board changes at Lonmin following an anouncement by Phuti Mahanyele that she would relinquish her seat on June 30 following a decision to end her 10-year association with Lonmin shareholder and black economic empowerment partner, Shanduka Group.
On January 29, Karen de Segundo retired from the board at the conclusion of Lonmin’s annual general meeting while on February 11 Glencore announced its intention to divest of its 23.9% stake in the company which once concluded would lead to its two representatives on the board stepping down.
Lonmin said in January that it would cut its $250m capital expenditure budget a quarter to $185m in 2015 owing to low dollar platinum group metal prices, and added that it would keep spending under review.
It unveiled a cost drive last year in which it said it would reduce costs over a three year period by R2bn of which R600m would be through redeploying staff to areas of the business where an increase in mining activity had been pin-pointed.
Commenting in its December quarter production report, Magara said the firm would stick to its production guidance for its 2015 financial year of 730,000 platinum ounces – a target analysts have said was a politically-driven in order to stay industrial action as lower output would imply shaft closures and job losses.
Lonmin has fallen down the ranks of South African platinum producers. At a market capitalisation of R17bn, it is now valued some R2bn less than Northam Platinum and is therefore the fourth largest platinum miner by market value on the JSE.
