Gold mining company Newmont CEO and president Natascha Viljoen was inducted into the Joburg Indaba Mining Hall of Fame at the opening of the Joburg Indaba on October 6.

The honour recognises more than 30 years of leadership across mining and processing operations.

South African Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe attended the induction, alongside industry stakeholders, fellow Hall of Fame members and Viljoen’s family.

Accepting the honour, Viljoen paid tribute to the people who work in the industry’s mines and plants.

“The fact that I have this opportunity is 100% due to the people sitting in this room and the people working in our mines and in our plants. Those are the people who make this possible. Through my career, they are also the people I have learned the most from: the people who actually took the time to teach me.”

A second-generation miner, Viljoen spoke about going to work as a child with her father, a winding engine driver.

“I didn’t understand much about geology or metallurgy. I just saw ordinary people doing extraordinary things. The ingenuity, the problem-solving, the technology and, above all, the teamwork. That got under my skin.”

She said her early years as a metallurgical engineer had taught her humility.

“The processing plant was a wonderful teacher. It doesn't care about your title. The physics are not impressed by hierarchy and you can't solve a metallurgical balance with optimism. It’s important that we respect experience and never confuse a title with knowledge and understanding of the industry.”

Viljoen also requested an honest account of the industry’s past.

“As South Africa, we've achieved remarkable things. We developed skills and built industries. But there was also exclusion. We separated families, at a profound human cost. Both these truths belong in an honest account of the industry that formed me.”

Recalling the Marikana tragedy, which happened while she was working at then-owner Lonmin, she said: “It’s important that we remember those who died, and the families and communities still feeling that loss. I carry that tragedy with humility. Mining is part of society and how we mine matters just as much as whether we mine.”

She closed by thanking her parents, husband, children, sister and the mentors, colleagues, operators, artisans, engineers and supervisors who “taught me what mining really means”.

Joburg Indaba chairperson Bernard Swanepoel presented the award.

“Tonight, we have the phenomenal privilege of inducting another leader of real quality, someone we are so proud of. It is perfectly deserved. Natascha now joins some of the finest South African leaders the mining industry has ever produced,” he said.

Viljoen joined Valterra Platinum (previously Anglo American Platinum) as CEO in 2020, during the pandemic and high levels of loadshedding.

Under her leadership, the Anglo Converter Plant was repaired and recommissioned ahead of schedule, and by 2021 it was processing record volumes.

She also put the proposed third concentrator at the Mogalakwena operation through tougher feasibility testing, even as platinum group metal prices rose.

In 2023, she joined Newmont as COO, before becoming the first woman to lead the company as CEO in its more than 100-year history.

Viljoen also held technical and senior leadership roles at Anglo American, BHP and Lonmin throughout her career. A metallurgical engineer, she holds a Bachelor of Engineering from North-West University and an Executive MBA from the University of Cape Town.

Viljoen joins a group of about 20 industry leaders in the Hall of Fame.

The Joburg Indaba South African Mining Hall of Fame honours leaders whose resilience, vision and decades of influence have made a lasting impact on South Africa's mining industry.