Gold miner, Newcrest (NCM) yesterday revealed that two senior executives would be leaving the company after an internal reorganisation aimed at trying to end the recurring problems at the Lihir gold mine in PNG and to try and kick start another project at Golpu, also in PNG.
Colin Moorhead, Newcrest’s minerals executive general manager, and David Woodall, the company’s internal operations executive general manager, will leave later this year, the company said in a statement to the market. Mr Moorhead has been with the company for 28 years.
Chief executive Sandeep Biswas said in the statement the newly created role of chief development officer has been created to consolidate all business development and growth opportunities into one focused area.
"I am pleased to announce that Michael Nossal, our new Chief Development Officer, will assume responsibility for all business development, exploration and studies activities. Craig Jones will now drive our two growth operations of Cadia and the Golpu project as Executive General Manager Cadia and MMJV, which acknowledges the increasing intensity of efforts on progressing the Golpu project. Craig Jetson will provide a single point of accountability for Lihir and will now report directly to me. Phil Stephenson has been promoted to Executive General Manager for Gosowong and Telfer,” Mr Biswas said in yesterday’s statement.
"I have made further changes to the organisation to reflect the increasing intensity of efforts on progressing the Golpu project, to create a single point of accountability for the Lihir turnaround and to increase attention on driving further improvements at existing operations," he said.
The Lihir gold mine in Papua New Guinea which represents about 55% of Newcrest’s book value, has been underperforming since it was bought more than five years ago.
Newcrest bought Lihir Gold, which included a mine on Lihir Island in PNG, for about $10 billion in 2010. Most of that has been written off or written down in value as Lihir’s difficulty to mine and treat ore has see production fall and costs rise.
There was no update on the company’s operational or financial performance.
Newcrest shares fell 2.7% to $13.80.
NCM 1Y – Newcrest shakes up team at top
