JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mxolisi Mgojo, the executive responsible for carbon operations at the JSE-listed diversified mining company Exxaro Resources, has been appointed to serve as CEO-designate of the black-controlled company as part of a year-long exit process by incumbent CEO Sipho Nkosi, who will retire in March 2016.

In what must rank as the most orderly and prolonged handing over of executive control, the transitioning process is due to begin on May 1 this year and continue until March 31, 2016.

The partnership of Nkosi and Mgojo, who have worked in Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee proximity since the listing of the company nearly ten years ago and with Eyesizwe before that, will then give way to a new partnership when current Exxaro Mpumalanga coal GM Dr Nombasa Tsengwa, with ten years service, takes over from Mgojo as executive head of carbon operations on May 1.

Nkosi will retire as CEO as well as retire from Exxaro after leading the group since November 2007, a year after the company listed on the JSE, following the unbundling of Kumba Resources.

Nkosi, with Dr Con Fauconnier, was instrumental in the formation of Exxaro, which involved the merger of Kumba’s coal, mineral sands and base metals assets with Eyesizwe Coal, a company he had previously formed and where Mgojo served as marketing and logistics director.

Under Nkosi, who turns 61 on April 29, Exxaro’s net asset value a share increased by 231% to R96 a share from R29 in 2007, fatalities were cut by 80% and the lost time injury frequency rate halved.

Exxaro said in a stock exchange news announcement that the appointment formed part of a carefully considered succession plan managed by the Exxaro board over the past three years.

Before assuming his current position in August 2008, Mgojo headed Exxaro’s base metals and industrial minerals commodity business.

Leading up to the formation of Exxaro, he was a founding member of Eyesizwe Coal.

At 54, Mgojo has more than 20 years of experience in the operational, financial, logistics and marketing arenas, predominantly in the investment banking and resources sectors.

He has a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science, an honours degree in energy studies, a Master of Business Administration and an Advanced Management Programme qualification.

Exxaro is one of the largest South Africa-based diversified resources groups, with interests in the coal, titanium dioxide, ferrous and energy markets and current business interests in South Africa, Botswana, Republic of Congo, Inner Mongolia and Australia.

The company is the second-largest coal producer in South Africa with current production of 40-million tonnes a year.