Global gold industry membership organisation the World Gold Council (WGC) has appointed Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman as chairperson and DRDGold CEO Niël Pretorius as a director.

Froneman succeeds Wheaton Precious Metals Corp president and CEO Randy Smallwood, who served as chairperson of the WGC since 2020.

Froneman has been the CEO and an executive director of Sibanye-Stillwater for over ten years and has more than 40 years’ experience in the mining industry. Under his leadership, Sibanye has evolved from a South African gold producer to a multinational diversified mining and processing business with assets and investments on five continents.

It has also built a leading position in platinum group metals recycling and tailings reprocessing.

Sibanye also holds a 50.1% stake in DRDGold, which produces gold through the large-scale retreatment of mine dumps and tailings dams in South Africa.

The appointment of Froneman and Pretorius marks the continuing evolution of the WGC board through onboarding of diversity of experience and industry contributions, the organisation states.

"I would like to thank Randy for his leadership of the board over the last few years. Under his tenure, the WGC has embarked on several new initiatives, from our transformational Gold247 programme to help digitalise the global gold industry, to bringing gold to the attention of millions of retail investors. I am grateful for his contributions and dedication as chairperson.

“We welcome the appointment of Neal as the new chairperson. His wealth of experience in the industry will greatly benefit myself and the rest of the board. I look forward to working with him in this new capacity, and to further our work to improve the gold market and demonstrate the valuable contribution responsible gold mining makes to the world and host communities.

“I am also delighted to welcome DRDGold to the WGC and look forward to collaborating with them on our shared ambitions for the industry,” comments WGC CEO David Tait.

Froneman says he is honoured to have been appointed WGC chairperson. "In a world of transition and change, the gold industry will need to be innovative and forward-thinking to remain relevant and I am looking forward to the challenge this poses.”

Pretorius adds that DRDGold is looking forward to being part of the WGC and drawing from the collective experience and knowledge of its members. "We also hope to contribute to its efforts to promote gold and responsible mining practices.”