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Expats head up Australian projects

14th February 2014

By: Donna Slater

Features Deputy Editor and Chief Photographer

  

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A team comprising two former South Africans has been appointed by pro- fessional services firm Deloitte as part of the company’s new approach to liaising with clients and managing mining projects on Australia’s east and west coasts.

Perth-based expatriate Nicki Ivory was appointed to lead Deloitte’s mining projects on the west coast, including projects in Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory.

Ivory is a corporate finance partner with over 20 years’ professional experience in Australia and South Africa.

“I was born and raised in South Africa, so I feel like mining must be in my DNA,” she says. During the early years of her career, Ivory was involved in several mining audits and had her first underground experience at a platinum mine in Rustenburg.

“When I moved into corporate finance with [life insurance product innovator] Capital Alliance/Brait and, later, [banking firm] Nedbank, I was involved in some mining transactions, but my direct exposure to the mining industry was relatively limited until I migrated to Perth ten years ago,” says Ivory.

She has a broad range of corporate finance experience, particularly in the provision of valuation advice, including independent expert reports and other nonpublic valuations.

Ivory has also advised clients on buying and selling transactions across several industries, most recently with a focus on the resource industry and companies that service it.

In addition, Ivory has a deep knowledge of the iron-ore industry, having acted in several capacities for clients ranging from large multinationals to junior explorers.

Meanwhile, Brisbane-based assurance and advisory partner and expatriate Reuben Saayman will liaise with Deloitte clients based in the eastern states, including Queensland, New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria.

He was born in South Africa and was involved with mining clients for 20 years in South Africa, starting as a vacationer on the gold mines in Welkom and working his way up to partner at Anglo Platinum. He performed several audits during those years, including audits at Samancor Chrome and Manganese and various coal mines, including Ingwe Coal. “Mining was always in my blood growing up in a mining town and my father worked at Sasol coal mine Sigma for most of his working career,” says Saayman.

In his 25-year career with Deloitte, Saayman has consulted with several energy and resources clients, and boasts an in-depth knowledge of the industry and the environ-ments in which they operate.

Prior to moving to Australia, he was a senior partner in Deloitte South Africa.

Saayman spent five years in Sydney as the NSW mining leader before moving to Brisbane, in 2012, to take charge of a large portfolio of mining clients.

During his auditing career, Saayman built a broad knowledge base that spans a diverse range of industries, with specific focus on energy and resources and the coal-mining sector.

Deloitte energy and resources leader Michael Rath says mining will remain a major driver of national prosperity over the next two decades.

He adds that the current boom in Australia may be entering a new and different stage, with projects ramping up their production phase. Rath notes, however, that challenges remain for Deloitte’s clients, particularly with regard to cost and productivity.

“Our previous mining leader Stephen Reid has taken on the national leadership of the valuations team in Deloitte Financial Advisory Services, which gives us the opportunity to take a slightly different approach in terms of his replacement,” says Rath.

He states that with Deloitte’s activities and the activities of its clients spanning across the country, the firm wants its leaders to be closely connected with both the east and west coasts, and the key mining states of Queensland and Western Australia.

Rath notes that individually, and as a team, the two South Africans bring “an incredible level of experience, strong relationships and insight and they will drive the services we provide to our mining sector clients”.

Edited by Samantha Herbst
Creamer Media Deputy Editor

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