Natascha Viljoen

IT’S not that long ago – a decade or so – that Natascha Viljoen was a senior executive in the South African mining industry heading up processing operations at ‘also ran’ platinum producer Lonmin. That was then. Now she is the most important executive in the global gold mining industry, running Newmont – the world’s largest gold producer. This is a huge (belated) victory for women in mining. She has gotten to that position through driving ambition, and ability but, having reached the top, Viljoen arguably now faces the sternest challenge of her career.

That’s because of the volatile situation created in the wake of the removal of Mark Bristow as CEO of world number two gold producer Barrick Mining. The two gold groups have had a long, complex and frequently antagonistic relationship. The firm’s last contretemps was in 2019 when Bristow launched a hostile takeover bid for Newmont which failed. The reason lies in the restructuring now underway at Barrick which is looking to split itself into two parts – one hosting its ‘safe’ major North American gold mines and the second owning its other operations in ‘high-risk’ localities like West Africa and Pakistan. 

According to the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper – which tracks Barrick closely – Barrick’s move is the lead-up to a merger of its North American operations with those of Newmont. It describes the upcoming merger as a “blockbuster corporate drama”.