Deon will serve as the CFO of Anglo American’s demerged South African coal operations business.
Anglo American has announced that it will be demerging its South Africa thermal coal operations. The demerged entity, Thungela Resources, will be headed up by July Ndlovu, with Deon Smith as its CFO.
Deon has been serving as the CFO of Anglo American’s Coal South Africa division since July 2017. He joined Anglo American in 2007 and has since headed up various finance departments within the company, including Risk and Assurance, Accounting Services, Capital Management, and Corporate Finance South Africa. Before joining Anglo, he was a senior manager at KPMG Advisory from 2000 to 2005, and prior to that, he served as the CEO of Cura Software Solutions for a year. Deon has a BCom honours degree in accounting from the University of Johannesburg.
CEO Mark Cutifani said Anglo had been pursuing “a responsible transition away from thermal coal” for a number of years now. “As the world transitions towards a low-carbon economy, we must continue to act responsibly – bringing our employees, shareholders, host communities, host governments and customers along with us,” he said. “Our proposed demerger of what are precious natural resources for South Africa, allows us to do exactly that.”
He added that Thungela will be a responsible steward of Anglo’s thermal coal assets in South Africa, benefiting from an experienced and diverse management team and board.
"As an independent business we will continue to contribute significantly to our host communities and South Africa’s development objectives. As part of our commitment to creating an enduring positive legacy, we are establishing an employee partnership plan and a community partnership plan, with each holding a five percent interest in the Thungela thermal coal operations in South Africa, thereby enabling employees and communities to share in the financial value that we generate,” said Thungela’s new CEO, July.
He added that Thungela is committed to operating sustainably and continuing to drive safety, health, environmental, governance and social programmes for the benefit of its employees, host communities and shareholders.