MOVING INTO RENEWABLES GOING GREEN

Md And Ceo

Sandfire Resources www.sandfire.com.au

BRENDAN Harris should have the wind at his back when he takes the reins at Sandfire Resources on April 3. Firstly, the long-term outlook for the copper price remains as robust as ever; secondly, Sandfire’s next major copper mine — Motheo — starts production of an expected 3.2 million tons (Mt) a year in the June quarter. There’s already expansion in Motheo by dint of a proposed $71.9m expansion to 5.2Mt a year (55,000 tons/year of contained copper in concentrate), taking total investment in the prospect to $397.4m. That’s assuming the group can get approval of its environmental and mining permit applications. The growth will be an important selling point for Harris as Sandfire is due to part ways with its DeGrussa operations after officially hanging the ‘for sale’ sign over the Western Australian mine. Cash flow will be generated by the MATSA operations in south-western Spain, a producing asset Sandfire acquired for $1.9bn in 2022 and now intends to optimise. But in Motheo, Harris has a major source of continual resource replacement and growth, assuming the optimists who hail the Kalahari Copperbelt as a new mineral system are correct. Sandfire said last year it had identified “substantial exploration potential” over a 4km strike extension, 20km north-east of the existing orebody. Additional exploration is underway in the broader Kalahari Copperbelt, it said. Funding for the expansion was tied up in October via a $140m project financing package with lenders Nedbank and Société Générale. Harris follows founding Sandfire Resources CEO Karl Simich, who surprised the market in September by announcing his planned departure after 13 years at the helm.

Life Of Brendan

Brendan Harris was previously chief human resources and commercial officer at South32. He was the group’s inaugural CFO following its creation through the demerger of assets from BHP in 2015. At BHP, Harris was head of investor relations. Prior to joining the Australian firm in 2010, he held various roles in investment banking, including as executive director of Macquarie Securities, where he led the metals and mining research team. He has a BSc in geology and geophysics from Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.

President And Ceo

Montero

Mining & Exploration

www.monteromining.com

TO say Tony Harwood has been around the block would be an understatement. He has worked for some 11 different mining companies in various executive and non-executive roles since he left the groves of academe after being a lecturer first at the University of Wales College and then the University of Natal, which he left in 1988. For 13 of those years he’s been running Canadian junior Montero Mining and it’s in this capacity he got into the news last year because Montero is suing the Government of Tanzania for C$90m. This was after the government expropriated Montero’s Wigu Hill rare earth project in 2018 by cancelling its retention licence under new Mining Local Content regulations. In May last year, Montero filed a request for arbitration, claiming C$90m in damages with ICSID – the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. The Tanzanian government’s action took place on the watch of former president John Magufuli, who took a hard line against the country’s mining industry. He died and was replaced by President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who was believed to be more business-friendly. Harwood says Montero has lost its investment in Wigu Hill because of the government’s action. He added Montero took legal action because “after many good faith attempts to settle the dispute”, there had been no resolution. Montero has a number of other projects but the share price collapsed last year. How much of that can be attributed to Tanzania and how much to poor general stock market conditions for exploration companies is anybody’s guess. Montero says its main focus is now on gold exploration in Chile. How the Wigu Hill situation plays out will be an interesting signpost as to security of tenure in the East African country which is seeking to resuscitate its mining fortunes.

Life Of Tony

Harwood is a serial mining entrepreneur, involved over the past 35 years with a string of companies – many of them listed in Canada –which include East African Metals, Tesoro Minerals, African Gold Group and Lappland Goldminers. He is probably best known in South Africa for his involvement with Placer Dome, where he was vice-president. Placer Dome was heavily involved in the early development of the South Deep gold mine, which it sold to Gold Fields. Harwood’s other main South African gig was as executive chairman of Universal Coal from December 2009 to April 2012. He’s a geologist by training, holding a BSc Hons cum laude and PhD in geology from the University of Wales, Cardiff.