IMPALA Platinum (Implats) said it had appointed Meroonisha Kerber, previously senior vice-president of finance at AngloGold Ashanti, as its new CFO. Kerber replaces Brendan Berlin who left the platinum company earlier this year to join MC Mining, a coal development firm.
The announcement included a number of other board appointments in which Dawn Earp, a former CFO of Implats, and Preston Speckmann, formerly group finance director at IMM Holdings were also appointed to the board – both as independent, non-executive directors.
All appointments are effective August 1, the company said.
The strengthening of Implats’ board, especially adding experienced non-executive skills, comes at a delicate time for the platinum company which is expected to announce wide-ranging restructuring at its flagship Rustenburg Platinum Mines.
According to a report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch recently, Implats could cut as much as 400,000 ounces of annual platinum group metal production – a development that would result in retrenchments at a time when employment numbers in South Africa’s mining sector have slumped to new lows.
