Gold Fields Limited has appointed Mike Fraser as CEO and Executive Director of the Company with effect from 1 January 2024.
Fraser is currently CEO of AIM-listed Chaarat Gold Holdings and before that was President and Chief Operating Officer of South32’s key metal businesses.
He will take over from Martin Preece, who, to ensure a seamless leadership transition, will continue as Interim CEO until 31 December 2023. Preece will remain with the company thereafter as part of its executive management team with further information to be announced in this regard.
Gold Fields Chairperson, Yunus Suleman, said: “On behalf of the Board, I would like to welcome Mike to the Gold Fields team. We are delighted to have a seasoned executive of his talent join Gold Fields as the CEO. He brings a rich and unique mix of global operational and corporate experience and his track record of collaboration in delivering superior results in productivity, safety and culture ideally place him to lead our management team in taking our business forward.”
Fraser, who is South African and holds a Bachelor of Commerce and an MBA from the University of South Africa, will relocate to Johannesburg from London.
Following an early career in industrial services Fraser joined the mining sector in 2001 in BHP’s human resources department. He rose through the ranks at BHP to head the Mozal Aluminium Smelter project in Mozambique in 2009 and thereafter was appointed the group’s President Human Resources, based in Melbourne.
When BHP created South32 in 2015, Fraser became President and Chief Operating Officer of its global aluminium, nickel and South African manganese and energy coal businesses, a position he held until his appointment as CEO of Chaarat Gold in early 2022.
Fraser said, “It is indeed a great honour to join one of the world’s top gold mining companies, particularly one that has set the pace in so many areas, including operational performance,value creation and positive impact for its stakeholders.
Gold Fields has in recent years transformed itself into a modern and global business that has embedded ESG in its business and provides strong value to its stakeholders. I look forward to working with the Gold Fields team in continuing this successful journey.”
Suleman thanked Martin Preece for his role as Interim CEO and for agreeing to stay on toensure a smooth transition and continuing to provide his expertise to the Company. “Martin’s contribution to Gold Fields has been invaluable. He stepped into the role at the beginning of this year and has not only successfully steered the company through a time of significant change, but he also advanced many of our critical strategic objectives.”
Fraser will have a strong executive team supporting him. Since the beginning of last year Gold Fields has appointed five new members of the executive team and the Board has commenced the search for a CFO to replace Paul Schmidt, who the Company announced in August would be taking early retirement. Schmidt will stay on to ensure a smooth transition to his replacement.
