Sibanye names industry veteran to drive uranium strategies

Sibanye-Stillwater has appointed a head of uranium to develop and drive strategies to optimise the inherent value of the group’s substantial uranium resources.

It has named Greg Cochran as executive vice-president head of uranium, effective from June 1. 

“Greg is a respected international mining executive with over 30 years of experience in a diverse range of commodities and in various leadership positions globally and in uranium,” the group said in a statement on Wednesday.

Cochran has extensive uranium industry experience spanning more than 15 years, beginning in 2006 when he joined Uranium One’s South Australian team.

He guided the Honeymoon Mine through its environmental approvals and oversaw the establishment of the Mitsui, Uranium One Australia JV.

He led the due diligence team on Uranium One’s C$3.8bn acquisition of UrAsia in 2007, which was the largest uranium transaction and was responsible for the integration and management of the Kazakh JV interests.

He has also led other uranium companies, including Namibian-focused uranium developer Deep Yellow and, most recently, as MD and CEO of Aurora Energy Metals, which has an advanced uranium project in the US.

“With solid fundamentals currently underpinning the uranium market, we will be assessing various options to realise value from our existing 32-million pounds of uranium resources on surface at the Cooke tailings dam, and 27-million pounds of uranium resource at Beatrix 4 (Beisa). We are confident that Greg will deliver on this potential,” said Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman.

mackenziej@arena.africa