Africa’s number two gold producer, Gold Fields, has appointed Vishnu Pillay as head of its South African operations to replace Terence Goodlace, who was promoted to COO of the group.

Pillay, who takes up his new position on May 1, was previously vice president and head of operations of the Driefontein gold mine, outside Carletonville.

The company said in a statement that vice president and head of operations at the Kloof mine, Peter Turner, would move to Driefontein, while Rodney Hart, a senior manager for operations at the mine. would head up the Kloof operations.

In another move, Stuart Allan, has assumed responsibility for the South Deep gold mine as the vice president and head of operations.

Earlier this week, Gold Fields announced a number of executive changes, following the decision of its CEO for the past six years, Ian Cockerill, to step down.

Cockerill would leave the company at the end of April to join a yet-unnamed nongold South African mining group and CFO Nick Holland would replace him