Anooraq announces CEO transition
VANCOUVER, April 6 /CNW/ --
VANCOUVER, April 6 /CNW/ - Anooraq Resources Corporation ('Anooraq' or
the 'Company') (TSXV: ARQ) (NYSE: ANO) (JSE: ARQ) confirms the
appointment of Mr. Harold Motaung as the Chief Executive Officer of
the Company with effect from 1 April 2011, as approved by the Board of
Directors.
Mr. Motaung will succeed Mr. Philip Kotze, whose fixed-term three-year
contract terminates with effect from 1 April 2011. Mr. Kotze will
continue to act as a consultant to Anooraq.
Mr. Motaung has been an executive director of Anooraq since 2004 and is
one of the founding members of Atlatsa Holdings (Pty) Ltd, Anooraq's
majority shareholder. He has a B.Sc in Mining Engineering and an MBA
from the University of the Witwatersrand.
Mr. Motaung was previously employed at the Free State and Vaal River
operations of Anglo American Corporation of South Africa Limited for
six years. He then moved to the South African Department of Minerals
and Energy as a Director within the Mine Inspectorate. He was
subsequently promoted to Deputy Chief Inspector of mines post, where he
was responsible for implementing the South African Mine, Health and
Safety Act. His responsibilities also included briefs and presentations
to the South African Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on the status of
minerals and energy within the country, which culminated in the
enactment of the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act in
South Africa.
Mr. Motaung has held positions on numerous boards of
Government-associated institutions, including the National Nuclear
Regulator, the Mining Qualifications Authority and the chairman
position at the Mines Research Board which administered a Mining Safety
Fund. Recently, he was appointed and served on the board of Minerals
Technology as a non-executive chairman.
Mr. Motaung has worked closely with Mr. Kotze during the past three
years, and his appointment follows a succession planning process.
Anooraq Chairman Tumelo Motsisi congratulated Mr. Motaung on his
appointment and extended his thanks and best wishes to Mr. Kotze.
'Philip has made a substantial contribution to the company during an
important phase in its development. A critical part of his mandate was
to ensure that we achieved a smooth transition when we took over
control at Bokoni Platinum Mines and then built a solid management and
technical team to manage the operations. I am pleased that we achieved
those goals during Philip's term with our Company.
'Equally, Harold will assume this role at another critical juncture,
where we need to build on the early steps we have made towards growth
and profitability to ensure that we fulfill the mandate that we have
been tasked with in turning our assets to account, safely and in a
profitable manner.'
The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy
or accuracy of this release. The NYSE Amex has neither approved nor
disapproved the contents of this press release.
Cautionary and Forward Looking Information
This document contains 'forward-looking statements' that were based on
Anooraq's expectations, estimates and projections as of the dates as of
which those statements were made. Generally, these forward-looking
statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology
such as 'outlook', 'anticipate', 'project', 'target', 'believe',
'estimate', 'expect', 'intend', 'should' and similar expressions.
Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual
results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be
materially different from those expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements. These include but are not limited to:
-- uncertainties and costs related to the Company's exploration
and development activities, such as those associated with
determining whether mineral resources or reserves exist on a
property;
-- uncertainties related to feasibility studies that provide
estimates of expected or anticipated costs, expenditures and
economic returns from a mining project; uncertainties related
to expected production rates, timing of production and the cash
and total costs of production and milling;
-- uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary
licenses, permits, electricity, surface rights and title for
development projects;
-- operating and technical difficulties in connection with mining
development activities;
-- uncertainties related to the accuracy of our mineral reserve
and mineral resource estimates and our estimates of future
production and future cash and total costs of production, and
the geotechnical or hydrogeological nature of ore deposits, and
diminishing quantities or grades of mineral reserves;
-- uncertainties related to unexpected judicial or regulatory
proceedings;
-- changes in, and the effects of, the laws, regulations and
government policies affecting our mining operations,
particularly laws, regulations and policies relating to
-- mine expansions, environmental protection and associated
compliance costs arising from exploration, mine development,
mine operations and mine closures;
-- expected effective future tax rates in jurisdictions in which
our operations are located;
-- the protection of the health and safety of mine workers; and
-- mineral rights ownership in countries where our mineral
deposits are located, including the effect of the Mineral and
Petroleum Resources Development Act (South Africa);
-- changes in general economic conditions, the financial markets
and in the demand and market price for gold, copper and other
minerals and commodities, such as diesel fuel, coal, petroleum
coke, steel, concrete, electricity and other forms of energy,
mining equipment, and fluctuations in exchange rates,
particularly with respect to the value of the U.S. dollar,
Canadian dollar and South African rand;
-- unusual or unexpected formation, cave-ins, flooding, pressures,
and precious metals losses (and the risk of inadequate
insurance or inability to obtain insurance to cover these
risks);
-- changes in accounting policies and methods we use to report our
financial condition, including uncertainties associated with
critical accounting assumptions and estimates; environmental
issues and liabilities associated with mining including
processing and stock piling ore;
-- geopolitical uncertainty and political and economic instability
in countries which we operate; and
-- labour strikes, work stoppages, or other interruptions to, or
difficulties in, the employment of labour in markets in which
we operate mines, or environmental hazards, industrial
accidents or other events or occurrences, including third party
interference that interrupt the production of minerals in our
mines.
For further information on Anooraq, investors should review the
Company's annual Form 40-F filing with the United States Securities and
Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov and home jurisdiction filings that are available at www.sedar.com. The Company's Annual Report on Form 40-F, which includes its audited
financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2010, was
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 23, 2011 and
is available at www.sec.gov. Shareholders have the ability to receive a hard copy of the Company's
complete audited financial statements free of charge upon request.
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Anooraq Resources Corporation
Joel Kesler
Executive: Corporate Development
Office: 27 11 779 6800
Mobile: 27 82 454 5556
Russell and Associates
Charmane Russell / Nicola Taylor
Office: 27 11 880 3924
Mobile: 27 82 372 5816 / 27 82 927 8957
Macquarie First South Advisers
Melanie de Nysschen
Office: 27 11 583 2000