Vedanta Resources has announced the appointment of Ms Deshnee Naidoo, as the Chief Executive Officer – Africa Base Metals and announce the departure of Steven Din, KCM’s current CEO.
Ms Naidoo’s appointment signals the Vedanta group’s ongoing commitment to enhancing its African operations.
And will seek to identify and drive synergies across these operations in terms of operational excellence, procurement, marketing, people development, and the investment in communities, in line with the group’s vision of business with purpose.
Ms Naidoo will combine the leadership of Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), in Zambia, and Vedanta Zinc International (VZI), in South Africa and Namibia, as well as Copper Mines of Tasmania.
She will also assume responsibility of Chief Executive Officer, KCM and will drive synergies across ZI and KCM.
Ms Naidoo’s appointment coincides with the departure of Steven Din, KCM’s current CEO, who will leave Vedanta group this July.
Ms Naidoo joined Vedanta Resources in 2014 with over 20 years’ experience in the resources industry, including platinum, thermal coal and manganese.
Prior to joining the Vedanta Group, she was Chief Financial Officer of Anglo American Thermal Coal, South Africa. As CEO of VZI she has led the development of the US$400 million Gamsberg Project, which will come into production in mid-2018, as well as the development of the Pit 112 Project at Skorpion Zinc.
Chairman of Vedanta Resources, Mr. Anil Agarwal commented, ‘’Deshnee has successfully brought on new production at Gamsberg and won the respect and confidence of the teams that she leads.
I’m delighted that we have a woman leader from Africa at the helm of our African operations. We have strong ambitions for our business in Africa and Deshnee is committed to deliver on these,’’ he said.
Mr Agarwal said, “We warmly thank Steven for all his valuable contribution to Vedanta and KCM over the last four years, where he successfully steered the business through one of the major copper price slumps.
He enhanced the safety culture and initiated a programme to transform KCM and aligned the workforce to Vedanta’s vision to produce 400,000 tonnes Copper.
“I wish him every good fortune and thank him for his services to Vedanta, KCM and to the communities in the Copperbelt and Zambia,” he said.
Steven’s departure from KCM creates the opportunity for Deshnee to step into the CEO – KCM role whilst the larger Africa role enables more collaboration and synergies across the continent and Southern Africa.”
