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JOHANNESBURG Jan 31 (Reuters) – Impala Platinum
, the world’s second largest platinum producer, said on
Tuesday it was appointing Terence Goodlace as chief executive
officer to take over from David Brown, who will step down at the
end of June.
The company had the second-worst performing shares among
South Africa’s benchmark Top 40 index in 2011, shedding
28 percent during the year as the platinum price struggled.
It is facing labour unrest at its Rustenburg operations,
which has been costing it an estimated 3,000 ounces a day in
lost production since about two weeks ago.
Like other South African platinum producers, it is also
facing increased safety stoppages from government regulators
tasked with reducing mining deaths.
The company’s Zimbabwe operations is in talks with the
government there over disputed royalties and a drive to force
foreign miners to surrender majority stakes to local blacks.
Goodlace was the chief executive of Metrorex, a copper and
cobalt producer with operations in Zambia and Democratic
Republic of Congo, which delisted from Johannesburg’s bourse
after it was taken over by China’s Jinchuan Group Limited.
(Reporting by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Jon Herskovitz)
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