Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman will retire from the role in September, having catapulted the group from a relatively small miner into one of the SA’s largest mining houses over the past decade with a string of acquisitions.
Froneman will be replaced by Richard Stewart, the group’s chief regional officer for Southern Africa — pointing to a crafted succession plan by the board.
Sibanye-Stillwater chair Vincent Maphai hailed Froneman for his role since being at the helm of the group in 2013, saying his influence in the industry extended well beyond the company.
“Neal leaves behind a proud legacy at Sibanye-Stillwater and in the SA mining industry, which is testament to his strategic vision and inspirational leadership,” Maphai said.
“As Neal expressed to me, while he has the same enthusiasm for what he does, and has lost none of his drive, he now wishes to spend more of his time with his family and loved ones and on his many interests.
“Neal’s legacy extends far beyond his role at Sibanye-Stillwater and he is highly regarded as a thought leader globally. His prominent roles as chair of the World Gold Council and co-leading the Crime and Corruption workstream for business in SA, among other high-level engagements, suggest he will contribute to the advancement of the global minerals industry in various ways in future.”
Before his current role Stewart was executive vice-president of business development and then COO.
“We welcome Richard’s appointment and are confident that this internal succession will ensure continuity and a seamless leadership transition, allowing Richard and the Sibanye-Stillwater leadership team to take the group to new heights and continued creation of shared value for all stakeholders,” Maphai said.
During his tenure, Froneman led the diversification of the company, that gave it exposure to assets on five continents.
Froneman has been on an acquisition spree over the past decade, rarely losing out on clinching deals. In 2016 Sibanye bought Aquarius Platinum in SA, including the Mimosa joint venture with Impala Platinum in Zimbabwe.
That was followed by the acquisition of the Rustenburg operations from Anglo American Platinum.
In May 2017, Froneman splashed out $2.2bn on US-based Stillwater Mining Company — the largest transaction globally in the platinum group metals (PGM) sector in more than a decade.
Sibanye in 2018 invested in the circular economy through an initial 38.05% shareholding in DRDGold, and later increased that to 50.1%.
The spending spree continued in 2019 with , snapping up Lonmin, which comprised the Marikana PGM mining operations and associated processing and base metal and precious metal refining operations.
One of his few losses was the failure to capture Zambia’s Mopani Copper Mines — losing out to cash-rich Abu Dhabi’s International Resources Holding.
Under Froneman Sibanye-Stillwater has also pivoted to lithium via its project in Finland that aims to start sustainable production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide, using its own ore.
The operations are being touted to play an important role in helping Europe reduce its reliance on China for the key battery ingredient for electric vehicles.
The EU requires all new cars sold after 2035 to have zero-carbon emissions. Besides being used in the batteries of electric vehicles, lithium batteries also power laptops and mobile phones, and is used in the glass and ceramics industry.
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