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Nicky Newton-King. Picture: Russell Roberts
Nicky Newton-King. Picture: Russell Roberts

Precious metals miner AngloGold Ashanti has appointed former JSE CEO Nicky Newton-King and Gemfields chair Bruce Cleaver as independent nonexecutive directors, with effect from July 22.

Newton-King, a corporate finance and securities regulation lawyer, is a nonexecutive director at international banking and wealth management firm Investec, and at the largest mobile network operator in Africa, MTN Group. In addition, she is a trustee of the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre and the council chair of Stellenbosch University.

Having served as the JSE’s first female CEO from 2011 until 2019, she is recognised for modernising the JSE and pushing for increased social and environmental responsibility across SA’s corporate landscape.

Cleaver was previously CEO and co-chair of De Beers Group, the world’s leading diamond company. He’s also been a partner at Webber Wentzel, and brings extensive commercial and mining experience to the board, the company said.

“We are very pleased to welcome Nicky and Bruce to the Board of AngloGold Ashanti,” said AngloGold Ashanti chair Jochen Tilk. 

Cleaver will serve as a member of the audit and risk committee and the social, ethics and sustainability committee, the company said, while Newton-King will serve as a member of the compensation and human resources committee and the social, ethics and sustainability committee.

“Their appointments bring to the board extensive executive and leadership experience, coupled with wide-ranging expertise that includes capital markets, strategy and commercial insights across developed and developing markets,” said Tilk. “Their perspectives will be invaluable as we continue to create value for our shareholders.”

Former chair Maria Ramos did not stand for re-election at AngloGold Ashanti’s most recent AGM in May, stepping down after serving as chair since December 2020.

The gold miner, with a R235bn market capitalisation on the JSE, is beefing up its board with industry titans just months after it switched its primary listing from Johannesburg to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), alongside the relocation of Anglogold’s headquarters to London from Johannesburg.

The world’s third-largest gold miner has said that a primary listing in New York would give the miner access to the world’s biggest pool of gold capital. However, the group was reportedly slapped with an R5.4bn “exit tax” for the move by the SA and Australian governments. 

AngloGold Ashanti now has its primary listing on the NYSE and secondary listings on the JSE and A2X Markets as well as the Ghana Stock Exchange.

AngloGold Ashanti, which industrialist Ernest Oppenheimer founded, completed the sale of its SA mines in 2020 and has refocused its efforts on more profitable mines in the rest of Africa, the Americas and Australia.

Gold is the firm’s principal product. Silver and sulphuric acid are by-products of its Argentinian and Brazilian operations, respectively.

AngloGold Ashanti shares were up 1.02% to R541.26 on Wednesday, having risen about 51% since the start of 2024.

gumedemi@businesslive.co.za

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