Directors & Management
Directors
- Mr Mike Kilbride - Non Executive Chairman
- Mr Don Turvey - Chief Executive Officer
- Mr Jason Brewer - Executive Director
- Mr Bernard Swanepoel - Non Executive Director
- Mr Connie Molusi - Non Executive Director
- Mr Johan Bloemsma - Non Executive Director
- Mr James Leahy - Non Executive Director
Management
- Mr Johan Heystek - Chief Operations Officer
- Mrs Rachel Hebron - Chief Financial Officer
- Mr Ken Hodge - Projects Manager
- Mr Haroon Alli - Head of Marketing
- Mr Zach Zulu - Head Human Resources
Director biographies
Mr Mike Kilbride - Non-Executive Director
Qualifications
- B.Sc. (Hons) Mining Engineering - Royal School of Mines, London (1976)
- SA Mine Managers Certificate - Metalliferous (1980)
- SA Mine Managers Certificate - Coal (1983)
- Management Development Program - Unisa (1985)
- Mining Taxation Certificate - Unisa (1995)
- Senior Executive Program, London Business School (2003)
Experience
Mr Kilbride brings with him more than 35 years broad experience and knowledge in the international mining sector encompassing various commodities, mining and beneficiation methods. During this period Mr Kilbride has held various senior management positions in charge of world-class mines primarily associated with the bulk commodities and supplying markets into Asia, Europe and South Africa.
Mr Don Turvey - Chief Executive Officer
Qualifications
- BSc Mining Engineering
- Masters in Business Leadership
- Mine Managers Certificate of Competence
Experience
Mr Turvey is a mining executive, with more than 27 years experience in the coal industry. His career includes senior management roles in production, project execution, business development, minerals resource management mainly with BHP Billiton. He spent most of his time in SA with exposure in countries like Australia, North America and Indonesia. He is past President and member of the SA Colliery Managers Association, member of the SA Institute for Mining and Metallurgy and member of the University of Pretoria Mining Advisory Committee.
Mr Jason Brewer - Executive Director
Qualifications
- Masters of Mining Engineering
- Masters of Mineral Law and Policy
Experience
Mr Brewer has 18 years international experience in mining, equity investment, corporate and project financing, capital raising, investment advising and evaluation of resource companies. He is a qualified mining engineer with operating experience in Canada, South Africa and Australia and has worked for several international investment banks and also managed Australia's largest ASX-listed resources fund. He also holds a number of non-executive directorships with several public resource companies.
Mr Bernard Swanepoel - Non Executive Director
Qualifications and Experience
Mr Swanepoel, BCom (Hons), BSc (Mining Eng), was appointed director of Village Main Reef (“VMR”) (formerly, Village Main Reef Gold Mining Co. Ltd.) in June 2008 and was appointed CEO of VMR in May 2010. He has been joint CEO since May 2012. He started his career with Gengold in 1983, culminating in his appointment as General Manager of Beatrix Mines in 1993. After joining Randgold in 1995 as Managing Director of Harmony Mine, Bernard became CEO of Harmony from 1997 to 2007 when the company grew to become one of the world’s top 5 gold producers
Mr Connie Molusi - Non Executive Director
Qualifications
- B. Journalism (Rhodes University) 1987
- MA (Notre Dame University, Ind. USA) 1993
Experience
Mr Molusi is currently the Chairperson of SIOC-cdt, where in November 2011 Subscription and Shareholder Agreements were executed with the Company under which SIOC-cdt has become Continental's new partner in South Africa.
Mr Molusi brings with him more than twenty five years broad experience and knowledge in South Africa's business sector. Mr Molusi previously held the position of Executive Director and Group Chief Executive Officer of Johnnic Communications, South Africa's leading media group.
Mr Johan Bloemsma - Non Executive Director
Qualifications
- BSc Mining Engineering - University of the Witwatersrand
- Graduate Diploma of Engineering - University of the Witwatersrand
- Master of Business Leadership - UNISA
- Metalliferous and Coal Mine Managers Certificate Professional Memberships
- Fellow of South African Institute of Mining & Metallurgy
Experience
Mr Bloemsma is a highly experienced and respected senior coal mining executive with 41 years in the coal mining industry. His career includes directorships and executive management roles in coal production, project management, mergers and acquisitions and business development predominantly with Anglo American PLC and Anglo Coal. His extensive career has involved coal mining in all the major coal producing regions of the world.
Mr James Leahy - Non Executive Director
Experience
Mr Leahy has more than 26 years experience in the mining sector as a senior mining analyst and as a specialist corporate broker with expertise in international institutional and hedge funds, foreign capital and private equity markets.
As a founding partner of the natural resources team at Mirabaud Securities, one of the leading UK based stockbroking firms, offering specialized and quality stockbroking to corporate and institutional clients, Mr Leahy has advised a number of natural resource focused funds in the UK, raised more than US$2 billion in equity for resource companies and participated in over 30 IPO's.
Management biographies
Mr Johan Heystek - Chief Operations Officer
Qualifications
- BSc Mining Engineering
- Masters in Business Leadership
- Mine Managers Certificate of Competence
Experience
Mr. Heystek is a mining executive with more than 25 years experience in the coal industry. He is a registered professional engineer and served as a director on the boards of Mine Rescue Services and Ingwe Collieries. His career includes senior management roles in production, project execution, business development and minerals resource management at Trans-Natal and Ingwe Collieries. Since September 2006 he has held the position of CEO at Mashala Resources. He is a member of the SA Colliery Managers Association and of the SA Institute for Mining and Metallurgy.
Mrs Rachel Hebron - Chief Financial Officer
Qualifications
- BCom (Hons), CA (SA)
Experience
Mrs. Hebron completed her Honours Degree at the Rand Afrikaans University in 1992, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1995. She has held various financial management positions in the Security, Retail, Electronics and IT Businesses of Unihold Limited. She joined the Head Office team of Unihold Limited (a JSE top 100 company) in 2000. Mrs. Hebron joined the Unihold Limited board in 2003. Mrs Hebron was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Mashala Resources in 2006. She recently successfully completed an Executive Program in Mining at the Mine Qualifications Association.
Mr Ken Hodge - Projects Manager
Qualifications
- BTech Mining
- Mine Managers Certificate of Competence (Metalliferous & Coal)
Experience
Mr. Hodge is a professional mining engineer, registered with ECSA and has more than 35 years experience in the underground and opencast coal exploration, development and mining industry in South Africa. His career includes senior management and technical appointments in mining and operations with major coal mining companies such as BHP Billiton and Xstrata. Mr Hodge's specialty is integrated mine planning.
Mr Haroon Alli - Head of Marketing
Qualifications
- BSc Mechanical Engineering
- Masters in Business Leadership
Experience
Mr. Alli is a mechanical engineer by profession and also holds a Masters in Business Leadership degree. He spent a decade in several engineering-based organizations after which he joined Shell South Africa. His career in Shell's Oil and Mineral Divisions spanned 20 years, culminating in his appointment as Commercial and Marketing Manager within the Mineral's Division. This was followed by his appointment as MD of Noble Energy's SA subsidiary, Noble Asia Pacific Limited, situated in Johannesburg. Mr Alli is a founding shareholder of Mashala Resources and as Marketing Director he handled the marketing side of Mashala's business, both export and local, including the acquisition of third party coal.
Mr Zach Zulu - Head Human Resources
Qualifications
- MDP cert. (AIM), Accredited Financial Management
- Diploma in Labour Law and Masters in Business Management (MBA)
Experience
Mr. Zulu has 14 years experience HR/Payroll in junior & supervisory level positions and has 11 years in Human Resources Management including several positions at BHP Billiton. From August 2010 Mr Zulu joined Riversdale at ZAC mine held Sustainable Development Manager position and more recently joined Continental Coal as Head of Human Resources.
