Mostert, who also doubled as the company’s chief financial officer, made his decision at a board meeting in Johannesburg on Monday.

MiningNews.net believes Mostert was planning to relinquish his financial management responsibilities to concentrate on more aggressively pursuing Australasian development opportunities but had a major difference of opinion with the board.

Charles Mostert

The disagreement is believed to revolve around just how fast DRD wishes its offshore business division to be grown.
DRD’s forays away from its homeland have not been without problems.

The company’s planned tilt at Emperor Mines in 1998 was aborted at the eleventh hour. Last year it had to write-off most of the $50 million it spent on acquiring Hargraves Resources following the flooding of the company’s chief asset - the Browns Creek mine in New South Wales.

Although DRD may recover some funds for Hargraves through an insurance claim, the focus of its Australasian operations now solely rests with Dome Resources which is mining gold from the Tolukuma operation in Papua New Guinea.

Mostert’s abrupt departure has cleared the way for a new round of appointments.

Ian Murray has been appointed chief financial officer; Dick Plaistowe, who was previously director of new business, has been appointed chief operating officer for Australasia; and Alistair Banfield has been made finance manager for Australasia.

In a media statement DRD’s new chairman Mark Wellesley-Wood said: “These structural changes have been brought about by the need to increase the resources dedicated to the financial aspects of the company on the one hand and to separate these from our operational focus in Australasia.”

He went on to say in the statement that DRD was now “following an independent growth strategy which would include further Australasian and South African acquisitions in the medium term”

“We are also considering potential South African acquisitions such as those which may be disposed of by Gold Fields and AngloGold,” Wellesley-Wood said.
DRD’s media statement calls the past financial year a watershed. Bad jokes about Browns Creek aside, it has been exactly that for the world’s seventh biggest producer of gold.

The company produced 292,698 ounces of gold in the quarter ending June 30 and profits rose 121% to US$7.4 million.

More importantly DRD is working hard to change its operational shape. In the quarter it closed its marginal Durban Deep and West Wits sections and moved to consolidate output from lower-cost mines such as Blyvoor and Harties.

DRD’s quarterly mentions nothing of early rumblings this year to consolidate ownership of itself, Consolidated African Mines, JCI Gold, Randgold & Exploration and Rand Resources under the one umbrella. MiningNews.net understands the deal fell over at the last minute in June though discussions are still continuing.

At the close of the quarter DRD reported it had 15.7 million oz in reserve.