Petra Diamonds has appointed former AngloGold Ashanti CFO Richard Duffy as its new CEO.
Former AngloGold Ashanti CFO Richard Duffy will be taking over from Johan Dippenaar as Petra Diamonds as CEO.
In a statement released on Monday, Petra Diamonds, which owns the Finsch, Cullinan, Koffiefontein and Williamson mines in southern Africa, announced the Richard’s appointment with effect from 1 April.
About his new appointment, Richard said:
"I am delighted to have been appointed CEO of Petra Diamonds. I look forward to working with a very capable team that has grown the business and laid the foundations for delivering on the recent capital investment programme."
Johan will be working closely with Richard to ensure an efficient handover in the period leading up to his appointment.
Petra CFO Jacques Breytenbach and COO Luctor Roode have expressed their commitment to supporting Richard as he takes up his role at Petra.
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Richard brings 27 years’ experience in mining in a variety of operational and functional leadership roles at Anglo American and AngloGold Ashanti to the role.
After his departure from AngloGold Ashanti in early 2015, he was co-founder of a company that develops, finances, builds and operates renewable and hybrid energy projects in sub-Saharan Africa.
Richard has extensive experience in both open pit and underground mining and a proven focus on safety, productivity and community relations, having led multiple large-scale mining operations across Africa. Added to this, through his roles in finance, Richard has considerable experience in taking a strategic view and accountability for all corporate finance, business development and capital expenditure related matters. He has served on a number of boards in Africa.
Petra Chairman Adonis Pouroulis said in the statement:
"We are extremely pleased that Richard will be joining Petra Diamonds. He brings with him an impressive depth of global mining experience which we believe will be critical to drive Petra's transition from a phase of intensive capital expenditure and expansion to a focus on steady-state, cash-generative operations. We are deeply grateful to Johan Dippenaar for all of the work he has done over the past 14 years to lead Petra through a long period of significant growth and establishing the Company as a leading independent diamond producer."
