Natascha Viljoen

CEO

Anglo American Platinum

Prior to her current appointment, Natascha was group head of Processing for Anglo American, a position she had held since 2014. This followed six years at Lonmin, where she served on the executive committee as executive vice president of Processing, also with responsibility for several wider corporate functions including sustainability. Prior to that, Natascha worked for BHP’s coal and chrome businesses in South Africa (including as general manager of BHP’s Klipspruit Colliery), the Modikwa joint venture between Anglo American Platinum and African Rainbow Minerals, and AngloGold.

Natascha began her career in 1991 at Iscor as a trainee engineer. Natascha serves on advisory boards of the chemical engineering faculties at the South African universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Queensland University’s JKMRC (Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre) in Australia. She has served as a non-executive director on the board of Kumba Iron Ore. Natascha is a metallurgical engineer and holds a Bachelor of Engineering from North-West University in South Africa and an Executive MBA from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Garyn Rapson

Partner - Environmental Law Specialist

Webber Wentzel

Garyn is an environmental law expert. His work is cross-sectoral and his clients operate in the energy, mining, oil and gas, industrial, waste management, biotechnology and construction sectors, to name a few. The nature of his work requires Garyn to be involved in every phase of his client's businesses, from the initial permitting stages, all the way through to the rehabilitation and closure of the operations. Throughout this business lifecycle, Garyn also runs complex environmental litigation matters, and is intimately involved in corporate transactional advice, including mergers, acquisitions, listings and disposals.

Adrian Hammond

Lead PGM Analyst

SBG Securities

Adrian joined SBG Securities in August 2014. He started his research career in 2010, firstly at Cadiz and then, post a merger, at BNP Paribas Cadiz. His past coverage has included Gold, Diversified Mining as well as Oil and Gas and more recently PGMs. Before entering research Adrian spent three years with Hatch, who had given him a study bursary, as a Process Engineer focused in the South African PGM sector.

Dr. Nombasa Tsengwa

Managing Director - Minerals

Exxaro Resources

As Executive Head Coal Operations, it is my responsibility to oversee the operations and functioning of the Coal Business and its ventures that are managed by Exxaro Coal, where I have been working for the past fourteen years. Additionally, I assist the CEO with the formulation and execution of Exxaro’s strategy. Managing the growth of the Coal commodity through strategic initiatives, as well as the marketing and logistics of all products, is my mandate.

Bady Baldé

Deputy Executive & Africa Director

EITI

Mamadou Bady Baldé is the Deputy Executive and Africa Director. A member of the senior management team, he provides strategic, technical and political oversight of EITI implementation. Bady also supervises the development and implementation of country strategies to increase the relevance and impact of the EITI in Africa.

Bady leads the Secretariat’s work on transparency in commodity trading between state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and international trading companies, and provides support on other policy work, including transparency in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) and Public Financial Management (PFM). Before joining the Secretariat, Bady worked at the Central Bank of Guinea, the German Development Corporation and as a Consultant at the World Bank. In 2012, Bady was seconded as an expert in Natural Resources Governance in the Governance, Economic Reforms and Financial Management Department of the African Development Bank in Tunis. He holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration in International Development from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and a Maîtrise en Gestion des Entreprises from the University of Conakry. Bady is married with two children.

Mzila Mthenjane

Executive Head of Stakeholder Relations

Exxaro Resources

Mzila is a mining engineer with combined experience in mining and investment banking of 20 years. This includes seven years in deep-level gold mining at AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields Limited in senior mine management and corporate development roles, respectively; and six years in investment banking at RMB and Deutsche Bank. His knowledge of business sustainability was honed over six years as executive: business sustainability at Royal Bafokeng Holdings and Royal Bafokeng Platinum. He assumed his current role in May 2013.

H.E. Julius Maada Bio

President

Sierra Leone

On May 12th, 2018 H.E. Julius Maada Wonie Bio was inaugurated as the 5th President of the Republic of Sierra Leone. H.E. President Bio completed his primary, secondary and undergraduate education in Sierra Leone. Always driven by a passion to serve his country, H.E. President Bio started his illustrious public service journey as a school teacher before joining the Sierra Leone Army where he rose through the ranks as Brigadier. He previously served as Chief Secretary of State, Chief of Defense Staff, Minister of Information, Minister of Marine Resources, Deputy Head of State, and ultimately as Head of State of Sierra Leone from January to March 1996. As Head of State, President Bio presided over the conduct of the first democratic elections in Sierra Leone in nearly three decades.

In Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Wonie Bio is popularly referred to as the “Father of Democracy” because of his outstanding contribution towards the restoration of democracy and attainment of peace in Sierra Leone. President Bio is a well-known Philanthropist and Humanitarian through the work of the Maada and Fatima Bio Foundation. The Foundation donated food and other items to victims and families affected by the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and during the environmental disasters of 2015. Most recently, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bradford, United Kingdom, pursuing a doctorate programme in Peace Studies.

Neal Froneman

CEO

Sibanye-Stillwater

Neal Froneman was appointed executive director and CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater on 1 January 2013. His career in technical, operations management and corporate development positions spans more than 30 years during which time he worked at Gold Fields of South Africa Limited, Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited (Harmony) and JCI Limited. In April 2003, Neal was appointed CEO of Aflease Gold Limited (Aflease Gold), which, through a series of reverse take-overs, became Gold One International Limited (Gold One) in May 2009. He was primarily responsible for the creation of Uranium One Incorporated (Uranium One) from the Aflease Gold uranium assets. During this period, he was CEO of Aflease Gold and Uranium One until his resignation from Uranium One in February 2008. He held the CEO position at Gold One until his appointment at Sibanye-Stillwater. He is also a non-executive director of 17 Perissa Proprietary Limited, Delview Three Proprietary Limited, Forestry Services Proprietary Limited and Ultimate Marine Ventures Limited. In May 2016, he was elected to serve as a Vice President of the Chamber of Mines of South Africa (Chamber of Mines).

James Nicholson

Head of Corporate Responsibility

Trafigura

James is Head of Corporate Responsibility at Trafigura, having joined the company in 2010 to help establish a Corporate Affairs team.
 
Trafigura is one of the leading physical commodity trading groups in the world, with revenues of USD147 billion in 2020.
 
Responsible for driving Trafigura’s responsibility and stakeholder engagement agenda worldwide, James’ focus has included developing the company’s leadership positon on transparency and responsible sourcing. 
 
In 2014, Trafigura became the first independent commodity trading company to publicly support the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and go on to disclose its substantial payments to governments in EITI implementing countries.  The standard set by Trafigura latterly formed the basis of an industry reporting norm.  In 2019, James was appointed to the International Board of the EITI.
 
James leads Trafigura’s efforts in pursuit of the responsible sourcing and supply of metals and minerals.  Of note in this respect has been James’ initiation and oversight of the ‘Mutoshi Pilot Project’ - a leading effort by government authorities, Trafigura and the NGO ‘Pact’ to support the responsible sourcing of cobalt from semi-mechanised mining operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
 
Prior to Trafigura, James worked at the De Beers Group for over 9 years.

Gary Felthun

Partner - Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice

White & Case

Gary Felthun is a partner in the Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice and is based in Johannesburg.
Gary is focused on mergers and acquisitions and private equity. He advises a range of listed and private clients, including prominent mining organizations, corporates and private equity firms, on both international and domestic transactions, and in recent years has acted on many of the leading and most high profile mining, private equity and healthcare deals in South Africa. Prior to joining White & Case Gary was a director at a leading South African law firm.

Andrew Lane

Deloitte

Andrew Lane is a senior partner at Deloitte Africa, where he leads the Energy and Resources practice in Africa, leads the Monitor Deloitte corporate and business unit strategy capability and leads the CEO programme at the Deloitte Executive Institute. His professional career spans more than thirty years. Andrew leads strategy, operational improvement, organization redesign and implementation projects in several industries. He has specific expertise in energy, resources, aviation, logistics and manufacturing.

Lord Charles Vivian

Director

Tavistock

Charles Vivian started his communications career at Citigate Dewe Rogerson in 1997 before co-founding Pelham Public Relations in 2004. During that time he created a successful mining practice at the agency as well as growing the business into one of the fastest growing financial and corporate communications businesses in the UK; until 60% of the agency was sold to Bell Pottinger in 2011. He then continued to work with the financial and corporate business at Pelham Bell Pottinger, before being promoted to Managing Director of the Geopolitical division that focussed on international strategic communications and advised individuals, corporates, ministries, and governments, with a main focus on Africa. Charles decided to leave Bell Pottinger in 2016 and then joined Tavistock in September 2017.

Neil Hume

Natural Resources Editor

Financial Times

Neil Hume runs the FT’s coverage of natural resources, with a special focus on metals and mining including the powerful trading houses that moves raw materials around the globe.

He was previously the FT’s Australian Pacific correspondent based in Sydney, the editor of FT Alphaville and a senior stock market correspondent.

Mark Cutifani

Chief Executive

Anglo American

Mark is a member of the Board and Group Management Committee (GMC), is a non-executive director of Anglo American Platinum, Chairman of Anglo American South Africa (AASA) and Chairman of De Beers. He was appointed as an independent director of Total S.A. on 26 May 2017 and The Power of Nutrition on 12 February 2018. 

Mark was previously CEO of AngloGold Ashanti Limited, a position he held from 2007-2013. Before joining AngloGold Ashanti, Mark was COO at Vale Inco where he was responsible for Vale’s global nickel business. Prior to this he held senior executive positions with the Normandy Group, Sons of Gwalia, Western Mining Corporation, Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines and CRA (Rio Tinto).

Mark graduated from Wollongong University, New South Wales, with a BSc in Engineering and holds two honorary doctorates awarded by Wollongong and the Laurentian University in Canada.

Hon. Gwede Mantashe

Minister of Mineral Resources & Energy

Republic of South Africa

Gwede Mantashe served as Minister of Mineral Resources (2018 - 2019). He is the National Chairperson of the ANC and he is also a former chairperson of the SACP. Gwede Mantashe was born in 1955 in the village of Lower Cala in the Transkei (now Eastern Cape). He studied at Unisa in 1997 and completed a B.Com Honours degree in 2002. He also acquired a Master's degree from the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) in 2008. Mr Mantashe joined the migratory labour force to eke out a living in the mining industry. Beginning his mining experience at Western Deep Levels mine in 1975 as a Recreation Officer and, in the same year, moved to Prieska Copper Mines where he was Welfare Officer until 1982.

In 1982, Mr Mantashe moved to Matla Colliery where he co-founded and became the Witbank branch chairperson of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), a position he held until 1984. He was then elected NUM Regional Secretary in 1985. In recognition of his skills, Mr Mantashe became the NUM's National Organiser from 1988 to 1993 and its Regional Coordinator between 1993 and 1994.

Mpho Makwana

Chair

IIAMI

Mpho is an accomplished business leader with diverse experience spanning a period of more than 29 years in executive and C-Suite roles in the public and private sectors. He is currently Independent Non-Executive Chairman of JSE-listed ArcelorMittal South Africa Limited as well as Lead Independent Director – Nedbank Group Ltd (NDBKF.PK), Nedbank Ltd. Furthermore, he serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Investing in Africa Mining Indaba, Illovo SA (Pty) Ltd, Gibela Rail (RF) (Pty) Ltd. He is Chairman of SAFCOL SOC Limited (State Forestry SOC) and family owned business Epitome Investments (Pty) Ltd.

e is also Chairman of Boardroom Alliance (Pty) Ltd – which holds the sub-Saharan trading license for Executive Search firm Heidrick & Struggles. Non-Executive Director BioTherm Energy (PTY) Ltd; one South Africa’s foremost renewable energy companies. He also volunteers as a Member of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital Fund’s Fund Raising Committee and is a Trustee on the Board of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. In April 2016 he was one 14 trustees appointed by HE The President of the Republic of SA to serve as a Trustee on the Board of Trustees of BRAND SA. During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Mpho led the team that kept the lights on; firstly, as Interim Chairman & CEO (3rdQ 2009) and as Chairman of Eskom Holdings Limited SOC from 10 June 2010 until his term as Director concluded on 27 June 2011, after serving on that board for nine years. Qualifications: Bachelor of Administration (B.Admin) University of Zululand, B.Admin (University of Pretoria), EDP, Kellogg School of Management and Post. Grad Diploma, Retailing Management, University of Stirling.

Nicky Black

Director - Social & Economic Development Programme

ICMM

Nicky joined ICMM in June 2017.  She is responsible for providing strategic and operational leadership to ICMM’s work in this area, including the skills for the common future, community relations, security and human rights, tax and mineral resource governance.

Nicky has over 15 years' experience working in sustainable development.  Before joining ICMM, Nicky spent seven years with the De Beers Group of Companies in London. Her last role with De Beers was as the Head of Social Performance, with responsibility for the company’s social management programme, sustainability reporting and communications, and working with the board and executive committee to set and align sustainability strategy. 

Nicky holds a PhD in Strategic Management from the University of Waikato in New Zealand, a  Master’s degree in Political Sociology from McGill University in Canada, and a degree in Human Sciences from the University of Oxford in the UK.

Clive Govender

CEO & Founder

ADAPT Digital Solutions (ADS)

Clive is a global executive with over 19 years in international procurement and supply chain, strategy & sustainability.

Clive has worked in mining, industrial and automotive industries and has gain extensive experience in strategy formulation and implementation, Procurement/ supply chain, sustainable development, project management, ESG management as well as  technology innovation.

Clive has started work for ABB as General Manager- Group process and thereafter Vice President Supply Chain/ Sustainability for Sub- Sahara Africa for a period of 9 years.
 
Clive’s’ last role was Head of Supply Chain (Chief Procurement officer) for Anglo American Platinum from 2005-2015, the largest Platinum producer in the world. He was also responsible for assisting in the restructuring of Anglo Americans’ procurement &supply chain to a world class, center- led organizational structure and delivered over 1.5BUSD of benefits from 2008 – 2012.
 
Clive is a successful business leader who has now turned entrepreneur at the beginning of 2016 and has started up a boutique Procurement & Supply Chain consulting firm, CGC Consulting as well as an investment holding company.
 
Clive has a Bsc Hons (operations management), Bcom, MBA (Henley UK), Senior Executive Program (London Business School). He is a member of the International Alumni Council and the President of the Alumni Club in South Africa. He is a sought after international speaker on the subject of procurement, supply chain & technology . His key topic is using procurement as a key lever to reduce poverty, unemployment and inequality in mining communities.
 
Clive has been the architect of the Mining 2050 Program at the Mining Indaba with its inaugural launch in 2018.
 
Clive is a guest lecturer at London Business School, UK and University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business.

H.E. Mokgweetsi Masisi

President

Republic of Botswana

Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi is the fifth and current President of Botswana, serving since 2018. He has also served as Minister of Education since 2014, and previously he was Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration from 2011 to 2014. He was first elected to Parliament in 2009.

Humphrey Oriakhi

Managing Director

PAC Capital Limited

Humphrey is a graduate of Industrial Physics, from the University of Benin, Nigeria. He also holds a master’s degree in Banking and Finance from the same University. He is also an Alumnus of the Lagos Business School (LBS) Senior Management Program.

He started his banking career with Guardian Express Bank (GEB) Plc (which later became Enterprise Bank Limited and is now a part of Heritage Bank Ltd). He was later seconded to the capital market subsidiary of GEB, Guardian Express Trust Ltd (GETL) as Head, Finance and Administration.

On the emergence of PanAfrican Capital Plc (Then Spring Capital Markets Ltd) after the banking consolidation in 2006, he was retained as the pioneer Head, Clients’ Services and later served in different capacities under PanAfrican Capital Holdings Ltd (PAC Holdings) as the reporting accountant of PAC Securities Limited, Regional Director, South Region; Head, Projects & Infrastructure Financing and later as Head, Specialized Finance.

Humphrey is currently the Managing Director/CEO of PAC Capital Limited-the investment banking arm of PAC Holdings. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and a member of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS). Humphrey is an Authorized Dealing Clerk of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). He is also a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registered officer.

He has a strong transaction experience spanning various sectors of the Nigerian economy and across Africa. He participated actively in the Privatization of the Power sector in Nigeria and led the team that raised financing for three (3) Power Generating Companies (GENCOs) out of seven (7) that were available for acquisition and two (2) Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) out of eleven (11). Humphrey has been exposed to several training programs in Project Finance, Financial Modelling & Analysis and holds certificates in various other courses.