JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South African copper producer Palabora Mining, in which a consortium of Chinese and South African entities now owns a majority stake, on Thursday said that the new 74.5%-owners would make a mandatory offer to minority shareholders and that it had started a process to appoint a new CEO.

MD Anthony Lennox stepped down on Wednesday after Rio Tinto and Anglo American successfully sold their share in the JSE-listed company to a consortium comprising Hebei Iron & Steel and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).

Craig Kinnell, Jean-Sebastien Jacques and his alternate Eric Yan, as well as Hendrick Faul also resigned as nonexecutive directors.

The board on Thursday announced the appointment six new nonexecutive directors and named Palabora’s GM of human resources, Maboko Mahlaole, interim CEO, while the process to find a permanent replacement for Lennox is under way.

Chengde Iron & Steel VP Jinghua Han, Tewoo enterprise management division director general Jie Yan, Hebei Iron & Steel International Trade Corporation GM Zejun Tian, General Nice Development company CFO Ng Tze For (Benjamin), IDC mining and manufacturing head Abel Malinga and former Palabora chairperson George Negota joined the board of directors.

Meanwhile, Palabora said it was understood that minority shareholders were to be offered R110 a share, plus an additional R5.95 a share, being a noncompounding escalation amount of 5% a year calculated from July 1, 2012, to July 31, 2013.

It stated that an announcement regarding the offer was expected on Thursday.

The IDC, which has a mandate to support South Africa’s beneficiation aspirations, owns a 20% stake in the consortium, with Hebei holding 35%, a privately owned Chinese trading company 25% and diversified group Tewoo 20%.

Rio Tinto announced in September last year that it would sell its 57.7% stake in Palabora, as it was no longer seen as a natural fit in its portfolio. Anglo American sold its 16.8% stake.