Speaker List

Advocate Thabo Mokoena

Director-General, Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources Republic of South Africa

Adv Thabo Mokoena was born on 20 March 1975 in Senekal, situated in the eastern part of the Free State province. He attended various farm schools from 1984 to 1989. In 1990, he moved to Tembisa Township and studied at the Jiyana Senior Secondary School until 1996, when he completed his matric. Advocate Thabo Mokoena, holds an LLB degree from the University of the Western Cape as well as a Post Graduate Diploma in Law. In 2014, he was appointed to serve as the Chief Executive Officer of the Free State Legislature until 2017.
In 2017, he was appointed to serve as the Director-General of the Department of Mineral Resources, which is now the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.

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.

Mxolisi Mgojo

CEO Exxaro Resources

Mxolisi Mgojo has been in the mining industry since 2001. Prior to that, his career includes 10 years as a software engineer and 8 years in the finance industry including Societé Generale Investment Banking. Mgojo has been with Exxaro Resources since its inception in 2006, heading the Base Metals and Industrial Minerals business before being appointed as the Executive Head of Coal in August 2008. In May 2015 he was appointed as CEO Designate and took over the reins from Sipho Nkosi as Chief Executive Officer on 1 April 2016. Before joining Exxaro, Mgojo was a founder member of Eyesizwe Coal where he was the Marketing and Logistics Manager. Mgojo sits on the boards of Exxaro Resources and Tronox Limited.

On 24 May 2017 Mgojo was elected as the President of the Minerals Council South Africa (MCSA) after serving on the then Executive Council of the Council since 2015 and the Collieries Committee of the Council prior to becoming a member of the Council’s Executive Council. Mgojo got re-elected again for a fourth term as the President of MCSA in June 2020.

Mgojo has a BSc degree in Computer Science (Northeastern University, USA), an Honours degree in Energy Studies (Rand Afrikaans University), a Diploma in International Financial Management and an MBA (Henley Management College, UK). He has also completed a Societé Generale Investment Banking and Corporate Finance Programme (Kellogg, USA) and an Advanced Management Programme (Wharton). In January/February 2018 Mxolisi attended the Executive Programme at Singularity University in San Francisco, USA.

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.

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).

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