J-Paul Rollinson
CEO: Kinross Gold Corporation
‘A restructure of senior management roles announced last year may indicate CEO J Paul Rollinson’s determination to keep Kinross Gold out of the clutches of predators’
A RESTRUCTURE of senior management roles announced last year may indicate CEO J Paul Rollinson’s determination to keep Kinross Gold out of the clutches of predators. Ever since it was forced to sell its Russian mines in 2022, Kinross has been cited as a takeover target. South Africa’s Sibanye-Stillwater is thought to have had an interest in the company. Then, activist shareholder Elliott Investment Management held talks with the company ahead of a $300m buy-back programme. Finally it emerged that Endeavour Mining, the West African gold producer, had discussed a takeover deal.
The talks foundered on valuation, which is why Rollinson is possibly so intent on a better rating for Kinross, if only to preserve valuable management time that takeover talks must absorb. The firm’s technical skills will be divided between two managers – one to head technical services while another, yet to be appointed, will manage global projects. One of the jewels in the Kinross portfolio is Tasiast mine in Mauritania. An expansion of mill throughput to 24,000 tons a day was finally completed last year, taking annual production to about 600,000 oz. The mine is also testing a recently completed 34MW solar power plant.
On the political front, Mauritania was welcomed back into the US-sponsored AGOA pact some 16 years after it was ejected amid a coup. The country also agreed with Chad to leave the G5 Sahel Alliance, created to control the proliferation of jihadist forces. Mauritania has not been drawn significantly into the political foment of many Sahel nations but the alliance, viewed as a construct of the colonising West, infantilised its members, the country stated.
LIFE OF J-PAUL
Rollinson is a qualified mining engineer and geologist who ran Deutsche Bank’s Americas mining division. He was also deputy head of investment banking at Scotia Capital, and took over Kinross in 2012. He comes from mining stock: his father was a metallurgist and the family consequently lived in Canada’s wide-open spaces. Fishing, skiing and boating are among his interests.
