PRETORIUS

CEO

DRDGold

www.drdgold.co.za

NIËL Pretorius has been outspoken in his criticisms of South Africa’s shortcomings over the past few years. At the end of 2021, he sounded off about the growing levels of crime and increasing anarchy in the country, which he said was “a clear and emerging risk”. Anyone following the events of the past year at Transnet and Eskom will recognise these risks. But Pretorius lately has also been emphasising the positives of operating in South Africa – apparently in response to last year’s assessment by the Fraser Institute that the country ranked in the world’s 10 least attractive mining investment destinations. Pretorius reckons that “South Africa remains too good a jurisdiction in terms of its mineral endowment to simply turn one’s back on”. He also laid out what companies like DRDGold have been doing to cope through “owning certain risks and becoming increasingly self-reliant”. The most recent example of this is the surge in companies setting up their own alternative energy plants to cut reliance on Eskom. Pretorius also cited DRDGold’s moves to provide the bulk of its water internally, and the use of the private sector for security on its plants. He summed it up as “a recurring theme in the private sector where the state falls short, private capital steps in and finds solutions for complex problems, in the process becoming increasingly resilient and independent of the state”. Being resilient has long been a key strategy for Pretorius and it drove the merger with Sibanye-Stillwater to secure DRDGold’s long-term operating future. That link could further help DRDGold through diversification into metals required in the renewable energy sector. That is a priority for Sibanye-Stillwater, which Pretorius says he fully supports because it “could potentially position our company very favourably for what could be an exceptionally long bull cycle in future metals”.

Life Of Ni L

Pretorius is a lawyer by profession, with BProc LLB and LLM degrees from the Free State and Rand Afrikaans universities. He joined DRDGold in 2003, using his law background to become the company’s legal adviser. From that start he worked his way up the management ranks, being appointed CEO in January 2009. He has kept DRDGold’s complex technical operations running on track and coping with marginal profit margins, but has spotted deals to transform the company.

The first major such deal was when he built up DRDGold’s equity stake in the Ergo project as its major Australian partner, Mintails, got deeper and deeper into financial trouble.

CEO

Sylvania Platinum

www.sylvaniaplatinum.com

GOOD news may materialise in 2023 for Sylvania Platinum and its shareholders. This year, Prinsloo intends to pursue – in typically careful, measured fashion – the initial potential shown by the Volspruit and Northern Limb exploration areas. Sylvania, which owns cash-generating platinum group metal (PGM) tailings dumps, commissioned studies on these mining prospects two years ago. The latest drilling results contain two happy surprises. The first is that Volspruit could have rhodium mineralisation (a nice sweetener at a current rhodium price of about $12 000/oz). But the 5%-6% rhodium is merely an estimate at present, and the study only covered the northern pit, which is about 58% of the project area. In the Northern Limb project, the pleasant surprise was the discovery of the T-zone, a very thick reef. Unlike the T-zone in neighbouring properties, it rises close to surface on the Sylvania property, which makes it mineable using open-cast. The Northern Limb area also contains the F-zone, which is deeper and would require underground mining. Next steps will be a feasibility study at Volspruit, hopefully to be completed by June/July 2023, including both the rhodium and the south pit. On the Northern Limb, Sylvania will extend the current study, which covered only 2km of the total 14km strike length, by another 2km. Prinsloo says Sylvania won’t necessarily “jump into” these projects themselves but once it has these studies it will be able to decide whether to seek a strategic partner with mining skills to complement Sylvania’s own processing expertise, or to dispose of the projects. Prinsloo is not likely to bet the farm on a multiyear mine development. Sylvania’s appeal to investors is that it stays cash-rich and pays regular dividends, complemented by occasional windfall dividends when PGM prices surprise on the upside.

Life Of Jaco

In his 24 years in the mining industry, Prinsloo has made a name for himself. A metallurgical engineer, he has experience in both base and precious metals and several years of experience in marketing to UK investors. He began his career at AngloGold in 1998, and subsequently spent eight years at Anglo American Platinum in various roles. He was principal metallurgist at Anglo American, based in Johannesburg, for another year, before joining Sylvania in 2012 as executive officer: Operations. From 2014 to 2020 he was Sylvania’s MD, and took over as CEO when Terry McConnachie retired. Apart from his degree in metallurgy, Prinsloo also holds an MBA from GIBS.

CEO

Paladin Energy

www.paladinenergy.com.au

AFTER several years of hemming and hawing, Paladin Energy finally announced the restart of its 75%-owned Langer Heinrich, the Namibian uranium mine that has been on Paladin’s books for decades. It was mothballed in 2018 amid a declining uranium oxide price but the commodity wheel has turned. According to analyst consensus, uranium oxide contract prices will be at $60/lb by 2024, the year Langer Heinrich restarts with a nameplate capacity of six million pounds a year — equal to 4% of annual global uranium production. At $118m, the restart will be a quarter more expensive than first forecast owing to inflation and a reschedule of work packages related to securing water and power to the site. Roughly 5% of production has been sold to “a leading Fortune 150 North American power utility” and a further 25% to China’s CNNC. Both deals are structured with price mechanisms. So far so good for Purdy’s Paladin, which must now box smart with the balance of supply. He told the Diggers & Dealers conference last year the company had walked away from less-than-appetising offtake offers. Meanwhile, the redevelopment of Langer Heinrich is bumper news for Namibia. Its finance minister, Ipumbu Shiimi, said more new sources of production were in the offing. There’s nothing like price optimism in a rising market; the question is, how high can uranium go? Energy security has been given new impetus by the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In this context, it’s important to call to mind nuclear’s efficiency: one fingertip-sized pellet, a mere grain, yields as much energy as a ton of coal. Other forecasts say uranium oxide prices might soar through $60/lb in the next few years. Let’s see where the world takes us. It’s worth remembering the mineral’s price in 2017 of a mere $30/lb.

Life Of Ian

Purdy is a chartered accountant with a bachelor’s degree in business and commerce from the University of Western Australia. He was recruited to Paladin from Quadrant Energy, where he was CFO. Quadrant is one of Australia’s largest oil and gas companies, producing more than 20% of Western Australia’s domestic gas production and a significant proportion of Australia’s oil. Before Quadrant, Purdy was MD of Mirabela Nickel Limited, an ASX-listed nickel producer operating in Brazil. During his time at Mirabela, the company raised more than $350m in equity and refinanced about $450m of complex legacy debt positions.