Minergy announced that its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Morné du Plessis has tendered his resignation to pursue other interests.
The group says du Plessis will remain available and dedicated to Minergy during his notice period ending 30 November 2023. The Board and executive management of Minergy says he was instrumental in establishing Minergy and was appointed to the Board of Directors in January 2017, serving as its first Chief Financial Officer.
He took on the CEO role in August of 2019 and oversaw the development of a fully functional and operational opencast coal mine from greenfields. “Under his leadership, Minergy made history by becoming the first Botswana opencast coal mine to export product via rail to regional markets, and to ship coal from the Walvis Bay port to international markets. The Minergy brand has successfully been established by du Plessis and his team while pioneering the coal industry in Botswana. The company wishes du Plessis the best in his future endeavours and thanks him for implementing solid structures, processes, and social responsibility initiatives.,” said Independent Chairman, Mokwena Morulane.
Minergy’s Board says it will begin the search for a suitable replacement for du Plessis, and the company will provide further updates as soon as possible. The Board further announced that the Minerals Development Company Botswana (MDCB) and Minergy have agreed on the secondment of MDCB’s Chief Technical Officer Matthews Bagopi to Minergy Coal effective 1 September 2023 to ensure augmented management capacity at the mine and ensure business continuity. An alumnus of Camborne School of Mines, Bagopi is a seasoned mining professional with over 30 years of experience in the industry in various mining commodities, starting his career at graduate level and ascending to executive management.
Bagopi has been instrumental and at the leading edge of developing coal markets for Botswana coal at Morupule Coal Mine in the region as well as internationally. He brings forth a well-established network of strategic partnerships and collaborations in the industry, ranging from operations, technical, commercial and business development, projects development, having paved the path for the development of MCM corporate strategy, before joining the MDCB as Chief Technical Officer, overseeing technical aspects of MDCB’s mining investment.
