This is ‘MINING WITH PURPOSE

CEO

De Beers Group

www.debeersgroup.com

FOR a company where you had to be an Anglo or De Beers

‘lifer’ to have a chance of making it — it also really helped if your name was Oppenheimer — De Beers has certainly been ringing the changes in recent years. It continues to do so with the appointment of CEO Al Cook. His background is in oil (BP) and mining exploration (Equinor). Cook takes over from Bruce Cleaver, who in turn replaced Philippe Mellier. Mellier was the first outsider to run De Beers, having cut his teeth in the sales department of various vehicle manufacturers. A former car salesman running De Beers? Shock, horror! Anglo CEO Duncan Wanblad described Cook’s appointment in classic corporate speak, commenting: “I believe Al’s multidisciplinary strategic skillset and strong personal conviction and values are ideally suited to the nature of De Beers.” Score one for Anglo’s PR team but a closer look at Cook’s background reveals one area where he could play a huge role in a critical area of De Beers’ future operations: he’s a geologist and De Beers’ greatest challenge right now is to find a major, world-class diamond deposit that will underpin its dominant position in the diamond industry for the next 30 to 40 years. There has not been a major diamond discovery since the early 1980s, when the Venetia mine in South Africa was found and several new mines were opened up in Canada. The Canadian mines are now winding down. The most prospective region for finding a blockbuster diamond mine is Angola and De Beers moved back in there last year to restart prospecting operations it shut in 2012. Geological insight and support from the CEO can only help the new exploration thrust and Cook could also be instrumental in getting controlling shareholder Anglo American to allocate more funds to the exploration budget.

Life Of Al

Cook holds an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge and has also completed the international executive programme at INSEAD in France. He is a fellow of the Geological Society of London as well as a fellow of the Energy Institute. He spent 20 years with BP running operations in countries like Russia, Vietnam, the US, the UK and Azerbaijan before moving up the management ranks to become chief of staff to the CEO of BP. He then spent nearly seven years with Equinor, becoming executive vice-president for international exploration and production.

CEO

Osino Resources

www.osinoresources.com

AFTER discovering the Namibian gold project Twin Hills in 2019, Heye Daun’s Osino Resources is now making plans for its $375m construction. But there’s still a lot of water to flow under the bridge; in fact, first gold is not expected for three years. So the task for Daun is to transform Osino from interesting exploration play to operator. That needs three things: increased project confidence, finance, and skills. Based on a prefeasibility study published in October last year, Twin Hills could produce about 169,000 ounces of gold a year for 16 years, at an all-in sustaining cost of $930/oz. That sounds mighty promising, but what’s critical for finance confidence is a definitive feasibility study, the result of which is due in the second quarter. As for attracting project skills, Daun acknowledges Osino is not there yet. So in addition to casting around for people, Osino is also open to attracting a joint venture partner; in fact, it’s a preference. One thinks of B2Gold, the Canadian firm Osino has transacted with in the past, the latest being the purchase of the Ondundu gold prospect, also in Namibia, for which Osino paid in shares. In other deals, Osino agreed that Australian-listed Prospect Resources could earn a 51% stake in its Omaruru Lithium Project provided it spent $1.56m. But it’s really all about Twin Hills. A mining licence has been issued for the project but that turns on finalising an environmental permit, which in turn depends on some delicate relocations of 70-year-old graves recently uncovered at the site.

Life Of Heye

Born and bred in Namibia, Daun has been involved in the mining sector for more than 25 years. After starting out building and operating mines with Rio Tinto, AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields, he moved on to roles at the sharp end of corporate finance with Nedbank and Old Mutual. Entrepreneurship is his métier, however. He cofounded Auryx Gold Corp. which was sold to B2Gold. As a former president and CEO of Ecuador Gold & Copper (EGX) he was instrumental in its C$200m merger with Odin Mining to form Lumina Gold Corp. He founded Osino in 2015.