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Lonmin Appoints Johan Viljoen As Chief Operating Officer(Alliance News Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) LONDON (Alliance News) - Lonmin PLC Monday said it has appointed Johan Viljoen into the new role of chief operating officer, which replaces two existing positions: executive vice president for mining and executive vice president for processing. The South African platinum miner said the executives who had held those two roles, Mark Munroe and Natascha Viljoen, will now leave the company. The company said the change to its executive management team will streamline the business and aid its strategy to rebuild operational performance. Lonmin said Viljoen has 37 years experience in operational management and leadership roles at Gold Fields Ltd, Anglo American PLC and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. Most recently, Viljoen has been running a mentoring company had established called Sfeer. "I'm delighted to welcome Johan to the management team," Chief Executive Ben Magara said in a statement. "He comes with impressive turnaround mining experience and a proven track record of delivery." The news comes just over a month after five months of major strike action by platinum miners in South Africa ended. The FTSE 250-listed company said in July that, due to the strike, it lost production of 192,700 platinum saleable ounces in its third quarter ended June 30 but it did manage to return to some production following the re-start of its processing division in May, achieving platinum metal in concentrate production of 23,618 ounces and refined platinum production of 36,255 ounces in June. The company said at the time that a ramp-up to full production at all of its shafts had started, and it is currently achieving roughly 30% of normal monthly production. Lonmin said it expects to be achieving 80% of normal production by the end of its financial year at the end of September and be at its normal steady rate of production by end of the year. Lonmin shares were up 0.5% to 228.10 pence on Monday. Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. |