RUNNING a mining company is not beer and skittles at the best of times, but there a number of industry bosses who are under particular pressure at the current time. Miningmx identifies those with the most to prove and what they must do to keep their seats.
Nico Muller – CEO: Impala Platinum
Appointed: April 2017
Impala Platinum mines palladium, which is doing rather well at the moment, but its main product – platinum – is stubbornly resistant to price improvement. The rand has also firmed as currency speculators line up the possbility of improving business conditions in South Africa.
Whilst this is net good for mining firms in the long-term, it’s not great for the revenue lines of struggling miners in the short-term.
Set against these conditions, Nico Muller is faced with a mountain of a task in judiciously cutting unprofitable ounces from Implats’ Rustenburg mines. Unions will oppose him, however, which is dangerous given that retrenchments – estimated to be 2,500 people in the first iteration of the firm’s restructuring – will heap pressure on communities in a sensitive region of the country.
What’s interesting about Muller, however, is that in addition to cutting ounces, he’s invested R400m for a 15% stake in the Waterberg project of Platinum Group Metals, a company listed in Toronto.
For the rest of this article: http://www.miningmx.com/top-story/31350-5-africas-pressure-mining-bosses-2018/