Beyers Nel
CEO: Harmony Gold
‘If we can add Wafi-Golpu on top of the transformation that has already been done, then that really ratchets us up’
BEYERS Nel was handed a sound deck of cards when he took over from veteran Peter Steenkamp as CEO of Harmony Gold in 2024. Firstly, there’s a strong suite of South African gold mines that are printing money amid the record gold price, providing him with access to funds of more than R30bn by end-2025. And, secondly, he has a co-CEO, Floyd Masemula, who is responsible for the South African operations, which are on track to achieve guidance of 1.5Moz for the 10th consecutive year.
This move enabled Nel to focus on growing Harmony’s international copper and gold portfolio. He made good strides in 2025. In October, he concluded the $1bn acquisition of MAC Copper, a New York-listed firm that operates the Australian-based CSA Copper Mine. A month later, Harmony gave the greenlight to the $1.55bn expansion of Eva Copper, another Australian asset it bought for $170m in December 2022. The two projects could produce up to 100,000 tons of copper concentrate annually within the next five years.
Then there’s Wafi-Golpu, a copper-gold project in Papua New Guinea, a mineral prospect Harmony co-owns with Newmont. The project has been stuck at the permitting stage for almost 15 years amid the volatile political environment in Papua New Guinea, but Beyers is steadfast on the benefits of its development. Should the go-ahead be given, Nel will have to balance the need for significant funding, estimated at a combined A$3bn, with shareholders’ calls for increased returns from the company’s rising cash pile.
LIFE OF BEYERS
Nel, who has 25 years of experience in gold mining, is a long-serving Harmony executive who joined the group in 2003. He was appointed head of South African operations in 2016 and group COO in January 2023. He is a past president of the Association of Mine Managers of SA and is the chair of Mines Rescue Services SA. He holds a mining engineering degree from the University of Pretoria and an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
