While still in high school, Benford Mokoatle was inspired by a geologist at one of the Vaal Reef mines to pursue a career in geology. He augmented his qualification as a geologist, gaining knowledge in economics, developing business acumen as well as ethical, social and political awareness to ensure that he became a well-rounded individual.

Andre Marais is Head of Projects at South Deep, responsible for providing the mining teams with the support they need, including placing of backfill, the shotcrete teams carrying work out in the de-stress areas, the secondary support teams, and the teams carrying out operations in the current mine area. He also oversees the execution of a number of capital infrastructure projects and the drawing office.

Over the past 26 years, Louis Turvey’s career has spanned several commodities including coal, iron ore and heavy minerals, and he has worked for a number of mining houses including Kumba Resources, Exxaro Resources, Total Coal, Xstrata Coal and Ticor South Africa. He has acquired broad leadership skills and has diverse technical experience in both opencast and underground mining processes, including in various beneficiation processes in coal mining as well as heavy mineral separation plants, slag and metal treatment plants and smelters. Louis was appointed Head of Engineering at South Deep in 2021.

Stephen Joseph is a metallurgist by training, who began his career with JCI where he worked at its platinum and gold mining operations. He joined South Deep as a metallurgist in 2001. In his capacity as Head of Metallurgy he manages the gold plant, backfill plant and all surface infrastructure such as the pollution control dams and tailings storage facilities.

Jacques is a seasoned professional with 38 years’ experience in the mining industry. He has a track record of performance in senior management positions and is widely regarded as an expert in his field. During his career, Jacques has worked for a number of mining houses including Impala Platinum, Vedanta Resources, Lonmin and AngloGold Ashanti. He also served as Deputy Chief Inspector of Mines for the Department Minerals & Energy.

Francois van der Walt began his career with AngloGold Ashanti in November 1993. He worked in various roles in safety, health and environmental engineering as well as senior management at a number of the AngloGold Ashanti’s largest South African mines. Francois joined South Deep in January 2017, and was appointed as Manager Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering in 2019.

To date, Siyanda has built his career at De Beers group, occupying numerous leadership roles within the group locally, as well as in Canada, Angola and Botswana. His expertise spans the mining value chain and he has led organisational change through people, systems and processes. In addition to technical expertise, he also has experience in stakeholder engagement with organised labour, communities and contractors.

Roelof Niehaus started his mining career 20 years ago with Anglo American Platinum where he was involved in underground as well as open pit hard rock operations. He joined South Deep in 2016 where he has held numerous leadership roles in the mining department. As the Head of Mining, Roelof is responsible for developing and successfully executing the mining extraction strategy. The strategy ultimately aims to enable each member of the mining team to perform to their full potential but also to encourage teamwork amongst departments in line with our value of collaborative delivery.

Steve Martin has extensive experience in leadership roles across multiple aspects of the human resources function, including organisation design and change management, talent and reward management, HR model design, and leadership development, and the governance functions related to each. He has spent most of his career within the minerals sector.

Ms. Xelia van Rooyen is an admitted attorney of the High Court of South Africa and serves as the Managing Counsel South Africa, overseeing the legal, compliance, and trust management functions within the region.

Stephan Fouche began his career with Gold Fields in 1996, as a financial clerk at the company’s St Helena mine in the Free State Province of South Africa. He gained further management accounting experience at the Group’s Beatrix and Driefontein mines eventually transferring to the Gold Fields Shared Services division.

Grant Webber has worked in the mining industry for three decades, at a range of companies that including JCI, Harmony Gold, Lonmin Platinum, Sibanye Stillwater and now Gold Fields. He joined the South Deep Team in 2020 after spending four years working at the neighbouring Kloof mines.

Willie Benadie is a seasoned mining technology and systems leader, with a proven track record of delivering large-scale digital transformation across Gold Fields and De Beers. He has led mission-critical automation, operational technology and automated information management systems, including Venetia Mine’s ‘mine of the future’ underground automation platform, and currently drives the Innovation and Technology strategy at South Deep. His leadership blends deep technical expertise with organisational change capability, enhancing safety, operational efficiency and business resilience. Willie is recognised for aligning multidisciplinary teams, contractors and organised labour behind complex technology transitions and for consistently converting strategy into measurable operational impact.