About

Board of Directors

Colin Bird

Non-executive Chairman

A chartered engineer, a fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, Mr. Bird started his career in the UK coal mining industry before moving to the Zambian copper belt and then to South Africa working for Anglo Coal and BP Coal. He has been involved with a number of listed companies in the resource sector, in the UK, Canada and South Africa.

Dr Mathew Phosa

Non-executive Vice-Chairman

Dr. Phosa is part of the ANC delegation which successfully negotiated a peaceful transition into a fully democratic South Africa. He was elected as the first Premier of Mpumalanga Province in 1994 and went on to serve as the Treasurer-General within the Executive Committee of the ANC from 2007 to 2012. Commercially, he sits on the board of numerous listed company boards.

Leon Coetzer

Chief Executive Officer

A qualified chemical engineer, Mr. Coetzer was with Anglo American Plc for 20 years, 16 of which with Anglo Platinum where he held various technical and operational managerial roles. A member of the advisory board of process engineering faculties at Universities of Pretoria.

Dr Evan Kirby

Technical Director

A metallurgist with over 40 years’ experience in the mining sector, Dr Kirby worked for 16 years in South Africa with Impala Platinum, Rand Mines and Rustenburg Platinum Mines. He then worked in Australia for Minproc Engineers and latterly Bechtel Corporation. Dr Kirby’s experience base includes gold, platinum group metals, base metals, battery metals, diamonds, coloured gemstones, and mineral sands.

Christopher Molefe

Non-Executive Director

Mr. Molefe has held several positions in corporate banking and industry and is currently Non-Executive Chairman of Merafe Resources Ltd and Non-Executive Director of Capital Oil Pty Ltd, and Chairman of Transfrontier Capital Proprietary Ltd and Sabicor Proprietary Ltd.

Nicholas Taylor

Non-Executive Director

Mr. Taylor is a seasoned finance professional with some 27 years’ of experience in identifying and executing strategic transactions. Having qualified with Price Waterhouse as a Chartered Accountant, Nick spent over 20 years in investment banking previously as European Head of Metals & Mining and Co-Head of Asia Pacific Natural Resources Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank, and latterly as European Head of Natural Resources Investment Banking at The Royal Bank of Canada.  Nick holds an MA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

Pedja Kovacevic

Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Kovacevic has a Masters Degree in Economics and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management and Business Administration. He is a corporate finance expert, with over 20 years of broad international experience He held a number of senior positions in both public and private sectors in markets across Europe and Africa, including VP Head of Banking at Duff & Phelps Africa and Director Financial Advisory Services at Deloitte Central Europe. Prior to joining Jubilee, he was the Group CFO at Afarak Group Plc.

Bertus van der Merwe

Head of South African Operations

A qualified metallurgist. Mr. van der Merwe’s career spanned across operational, technical and business optimization.  These included Chief Operating Officer at one of the world’s leading chrome and ferrochrome entities and later Chief Executive Officer of an up and coming international ferrochrome company.  In his career he was regularly called upon to design and lead the implementation of turn around strategies and business optimisation programs.

Frans de Beer 


Head of Zambian Operations

A qualified Chemical Engineer with a Masters Degree and MBA.  Mr. de Beer has a long standing successful career in minerals processing which included roles as Vice President Smelting and Refining at  one of the leading platinum firms as well as Chief Processing Officer for Glencore at their Mopani Copper Mines  operations in Zambia.  He holds a  Master Black Belt qualification  in Lean Six Sigma implementation to drive   continuous improvement strategies.

Johan Meyer


Head of Projects

A qualified mechanical  engineer, with a post graduate diploma in Industrial Engineering. Johan has extensive knowledge of establishing and growing early stage enterprises to a sustainable  company. He has  held executive roles in metals and mineral processing industries, which include the  positions of Chief Operating Officer and Group Business Development Manager for Sylvania Platinum Plc.

Leon Coetzer

Chief Executive Officer

A qualified chemical engineer, Mr. Coetzer was with Anglo American Plc for 20 years, 16 of which with Anglo Platinum where he held various technical and operational managerial roles. A member of the advisory board of process engineering faculties at Universities of Pretoria.

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