Part Of Centamin CEO Martin Horgan Interview2 Jul 2021 00:00
Appointed in April 2020 following aborted takeover talks with now fellow London-listed gold player Endeavour Mining, Horgan oversaw a strong share price run last summer before pit stability issues at Sukari west wall forced the company to lower guidance. Centamin stock plummeted by nearly a quarter overnight.'
'Having reworked the mine plan, the first phase of a life of asset review at the beginning of December offered a chance for Horgan to lay bare past failings at Sukari.'
'I think the company got itself into this tailspin whereby it was working year to year. Somebody somewhere said tier one assets have to have 10 years of 500,000 ounces. And that became dogma, without thinking about what right for the asset.'
'That how the company got itself under-stripped in the open pit, underdeveloped in the underground, under-explored in geology...we were too busy thinking just about replacement.'
'You can't run a 10-15 year asset on a year to year basis' you've got to basically have a life of mine plan, or at least 10-year plan, that drives your five-year plan, and that drives your 12 month budget, he said.'
'The CEO said the fact Sukari had at least another 12-13 years to run meant it was a case of stripping it back to the chassis.'
'There sufficient runway ahead of us that it worth doing that and basically breaking it down to its constituent parts, and then putting it back together, he said.'
'Rather than using different mining techniques, Horgan said the key to improving Sukari performance was a simple combination of people and processes.'
'You can take the best ore body in the world and put a bunch of amateurs in charge and they wouldn't make a penny' you can take a marginal ore body with some pretty sharp people and you can make a pound note, said Horgan.'
'When I came in, I just felt we were light in two or three really key areas, or to be blunt the people in the place weren't of the requisite quality. So it was about plugging some headcount into some key areas, said Horgan.'
'Horgan previous experience as CEO of private West Africa-focused gold explorer Toro Gold - which sold the Mako gold mine in Senegal to Resolute Mining in 2019 - meant he didn't have to look far for likely candidates.'
'Howard Bills, Horgan Toro co-founder, came on board as group exploration manager in June 2020, with another former Toro alumnus Paul Cannon joining as environmental and social manager in September.'
'How you turn the culture around is that obviously you lead by example' you try to inspire, you talk, you put rules in place, systems etc. But another good way to do it is you just inject that successful DNA into the business. And if you can bring people across who have been successful with you, who know how you work, and inject that enthusiasm, energy, respect, professionalism into the business' it helps to just it accelerates that process, said Horgan.'
https://www.mining-journal.com/gold-and-silver-news/news/1413033/centamins-
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