Mpumi Zikalala
Rainmakers & Potstirrers

Mpumi Zikalala

CEO: Kumba Iron Ore

www.angloamericankumba.com

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‘We are encouraged by the policy reforms and the value that this will bring to the turnaround of the performance of the logistics network’

NOMPUMELELO (Mpumi) Zikalala is perhaps fortunate that she is the CEO of an Anglo American unit that the mother ship is not preparing to sell or hive off. Iron ore remains key to Anglo’s strategy and so Kumba will remain part of its stable for the foreseeable future. This will allow Zikalala to focus on Kumba’s main challenges without the distraction of separation. These include the meltdown of the rail network operated by South Africa’s state-run logistics company Transnet. 

New management at Transnet has raised the prospect that things can get turned around but this will take some time and Kumba has had to curtail production and lay off close to 500 employees because of the logistical issues. Faltering Chinese demand, which saw iron ore prices call 15% in 2024, is another key worry for Zikalala in 2025. One potential game changer for Kumba is its decision in 2024 to invest R7.6bn in a processing technology that it says will treble the proportion of high-quality iron ore it produces and lift its earnings as the product will command a higher price. 

This premium product reduces carbon emissions and is seen playing a vital role in the production of green steel, which is increasingly coveted as companies seek to decarbonise. With its focus on a single commodity, Zikalala is also under no pressure to pursue deals to diversify Kumba’s asset base. As a female CEO, she remains a relatively rare and coveted commodity in South Africa’s mining space.

LIFE OF MPUMI

Zikalala is an affable CEO with a background in chemical engineering. She started her career at De Beers in 2001 as a process engineer and held various leadership roles there before her appointment in 2007 as GM at De Beers’ Kimberley Mines, making her the first female GM in the De Beers Group. She was the 2023 Campaign Ambassador for the International Day for Women in Mining and won a 2018 Top 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining award in Mayfield, London.

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