[miningmx.com] – IT seems a foregone conclusion that the popular Aussie, Mark Cutifani, CEO of AngloGold Ashanti, will succeed Cynthia Carroll as CEO of Anglo American.
Bloomberg and Reuters, the world’s two leading financial news services, learnt from different sources in London over the weekend that Cutifani is the frontrunner on the shortlist to find a successor for Carroll.
According to both news services’ sources, the appointment will be announced within the next two weeks.
Cutifani, who was appointed president of the Chamber of Mines in November last year, succeeded Bobby Godsell as CEO of AngloGold in October 2007. Prior to this, he was the chief operating officer of CVRD Inco, the Canadian subsidiary of Brazilian iron ore producer Vale.
Spokesmen for Anglo and AngloGold Ashanti could not be reached for comment yesterday, but other sources in South Africa also told Fin24 yesterday afternoon that Cutifani is the most likely candidate.
Several fund managers, including Anglo’s biggest shareholders in South Africa, had conveyed their dissatisfaction over Anglo’s performance to Carroll.
Internal candidates being considered for the post are Anglo American Platinum CEO Chris Griffiths, Anglo financial director Rene Medori, and group strategy head Peter Whitcutt. External candidates who were considered are former BHP Billiton CEO Chip Goodyear and Alex Vanselow, who resigned from Billiton last year because he wanted to be the CEO of a diversified mining group.
AngloGold has since 2009 no longer had any ties with Anglo American, because Carroll then sold the last 11% shareholding in AngloGold to an American hedge fund, Paulson & Co, for $1.28bn. Paulson is still the largest shareholder in AngloGold.
Cutifani has impressed with his pragmatic approach to economic transformation in South Africa. He was also at the forefront of initiatives to increase AngloGold’s production in order to capitalise on the rising gold price in the aftermath of the global economic downturn in 2008.
The top post at Anglo is regarded as one of the toughest in the mining industry, among other things because of the group’s exposure to South Africa with its social problems, labour issues and dangerous deep-level platinum mines.
Carroll can claim that she dramatically decreased fatal accidents in the country’s platinum mines, but Cutifani had virtually as much success with this in AngloGold’s South African gold mines.
Cutifani’s greatest challenge will be to build Anglo Platinum (Amplats) into a more profitable performer together with Griffiths and to ensure that Anglo’s Minas Rio iron ore project in Brazil gets under way after several delays and runaway cost increases.
Carroll started with a comprehensive review of Amplats in February last year. The outcome will be announced later this month, but it’s almost a foregone conclusion that it will result in a slimming down of Amplats.
