Chris Curfman, vice president of Cat’s Mining Sales & Support Division, will retire at the end of the year. He joined Cat in 1994 and was appointed vice president of the Global Mining Division in 2004. His division will be integrated into the existing Global Mining machine business divisions. The surface mining sales and support teams will join the Hauling & Extraction Division, which will be renamed the Surface Mining & Technology Division, led by Caterpillar Vice President Tom Bluth. The underground mining sales and support teams will join the Material Handling and Underground Division, led by Caterpillar Vice President Denise Johnson.
Joy Global announced that Randal W. Baker, executive vice president and COO, will leave the company. Baker previously served as president of Joy Global Surface Mining from November 2009 until his appointment as COO in December 2013.
Bobby Copper was named CEO of Standard Metals Processing, which was recently renamed Cambrian Minerals. Tom Myatt also joined the senior management team at Cambrian. From 1993 to 1997, Cooper served as president of Kennecott Corp. Myatt was president and general manager of Rio Tinto Services Co. from 2003 to 2006.
Black Stone Minerals announced Dawn Smajstrla as the new vice president and chief accounting officer. Most recently, Smajstrla served as vice president, controller and chief accounting officer for Lime Rock Resources and Lime Rock Energy.
Golden Predator Mining Corp. announced that previous Directors Dennis Fentie and Greg Hayes have rejoined the board of directors and it reappointed Janet Lee-Sheriff CEO and Greg Hayes as acting CFO.
Argent Minerals Ltd. announced several appointments to its board of directors: Peter Nightingale, nonexecutive director, and Peter Michael, nonexecutive director.
Nightingale is currently a director of Augur Resources Ltd. and Planet Gas Ltd., Nickel Mines Ltd. and Prospech Ltd. Michael joins the board following the sudden and unexpected passing away of his brother, Nonexecutive Director Marcus Michael in June. Sarah Shipway resigns as nonexecutive director and continues as secretary.
Columbia Steel announced that current District Manager John Bergner has added dragline operations in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana to his customer base. Bergner has 17 years of experience representing dragline chain, rigging, and GET products, and more than three decades as a Columbia district manager.
Camfil Air Pollution Control appointed Christian Debus as the new executive vice president in charge of worldwide operations. He will be located at the Camfil APC office in Tuttlingen, Germany.
The University of Applied Sciences, TFH Georg Agricola in Bochum, has a new member on its executive committee: Dr. Ulrich Paschedag will be the new vice president of the faculty of geo-engineering, mining and technical business management. He succeeds Dr. Christoph Dauber. Paschedag was a former vice president-underground mining for Caterpillar, managing the company’s operations in Lunen, Germany.
Fatih Birol is the new executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA). Dr. Birol joined the IEA in 1995, and most recently held the positions of chief economist and director of Global Energy Economics.
Noricum Gold Ltd. appointed Mark Owen a senior advisor. He spent the past 13 years as technical director for Wardell Armstrong International.
Skelly and Loy promoted Francis J. Gally III director of civil engineering. Gally will oversee staff, projects, and resources of the firm’s Civil Engineering Services Group, providing engineering, design, and construction support services for municipal, water resources, acid rock drainage remediation, and land development projects.
AECOM announced that Mary E. Finch has been named executive vice president and chief human resources officer.
Sapa AS appointed Egil Hogna as the new president and CEO. He replaced Svein Tore Holsether. For the last six years, Hogna has led the downstream operations at Yara International. He previously served in a variety of management positions in Yara and Hydro, including CFO and head of investor relations.
Strata Worldwide announced changes to its local executive management team in South Africa. Julian Ford, formerly executive vice president for proximity detection and collision avoidance, has now been named president and general manager of Strata’s South African operations. Prior to joining Strata, he was the head of engineering for Anglo American Coal South Africa.
Graham Howell, partner and principal structural and geotechnical consultant at SRK Consulting (SA), has been elected as a fellow of the South African Academy of Engineering (SAAE).
The Wits School of Mining Engineering recently hosted the official unveiling of the Danie Krige Display Cabinet in a lecture room in the Chamber of Mines Building on the Wits campus. The collection includes bound volumes of all his research papers, as well as certificates and awards that Professor Krige received from numerous universities and dignitaries from around the world. Widow of the late Professor Danie Krige, Ansie Krige, who donated these items to the school and officially performed the ribbon cutting ceremony, spoke of her gratitude to the school for honoring her late husband. Their children also attended the occasion. The late Danie Krige is remembered for his contribution to the understanding of how mineralization was distributed in the many new mines that were developed in the middle of the last century. Kriging is named after Krige for his development of the process of applying mathematical statistics to the spatial evaluation of ore-bodies has helped improve ore evaluation techniques and reduce the financial risk of investing in mining projects. The technique is now applied worldwide mainly in the fields of exploration, environmental analysis, petroleum, hydrology, agriculture and other disciplines. He received the Southern Africa Institute of Mining and Metallurgy’s (SAIMM) highest award the Brigadier Stokes platinum medal in 1984, an honorary doctorate from Wits in 2010, his admission to the National Academy of Engineers in the United Sates and the Order of the Baobab from President Jacob Zuma in 2011. He passed away on March 23, 2013, at the age of 93.
