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Board and Management

Mr Roger Baxter 
(appointed 1 January 2024)

Executive Chairman

Roger was the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Council South Africa for over 8 years from May 2015.  He recently retired from this position. In that role he played a key part in guiding the South African mining sector to achieve an improved safety record with a significant focus on the implementation of mine site solutions based on the adoption of leading global safety practices.

Roger also led the complete brand rejuvenation, reputation enhancement and modernisation of the Mineral Council into becoming a much more effective, strategically driven, agile, assertive and capable organisation.

Roger was awarded the “2020 Mining Thought Leader of the Year” by the Mining Review Africa journal and has also been listed in MiningMX’s “100 most influential people in Africa’s mining” sector.

Roger was the founding Chairman of the World Platinum Investment Council – a position he continues to hold to date. He is also immediate past President of the Mining Industry Association of Southern Africa (2019 – 2022) and the immediate past Chairman of the Associations Coordinating Group of the International Council of Mining and Metals (2020 – 2022). Roger holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from the University of Natal in South Africa.

Roger was appointed as a Director and Non-Executive Chairman on 1 January 2024. On 8 October 2024 Roger was appointed as Executive Chairman.

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Mr Nicolaas Johannes (Johan) Odendaal 
(appointed 27 May 2021)

Non-independent Director; Managing Director

Johan Odendaal is a Mineral Economist and holds a B.Sc. degree in Geology, a B.Sc. Hons degree in Mineral Economics and a M.Sc. degree in Mining Engineering. Johan is director and co-founder of mining consulting firm Minxcon (2005) and has 36 years’ experience in the mining and financial industry. This includes 19 years as an independent mining consultant and 12 years as a financial analyst involved in mine-financial analysis and valuations and corporate advisory. He headed mining research at a leading South African broking firm and spent several years at Merrill Lynch as Vice President. Mr Odendaal is currently the Chief Executive Officer of MUM.

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Mr Michael (Mike) Stirzaker 
(appointed 4 December 2020)

Independent Non-Executive Director

Mike Stirzaker has a B.Com (University of Cape Town) and qualified as a Chartered Accountant (Australia) whilst working with KPMG. He has over 40 years’ commercial experience, mainly in mining finance and mining investment with various companies including being Joint Managing Director of boutique resource adviser, RFC Group Limited, a partner of Tennant Metals, Finance Director of Finders Resources Limited, and from 2010 to 2019 was a partner at the private equity mining fund manager, Pacific Road Capital. Mike is currently the independent non-executive chairman of Base Resources Limited and Akora Resources Limited, and a non-executive director of Firestone Diamonds PLC. Mike was appointed as Interim Chairman for the period 5 May 2023 until 31 December 2023.

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Mr Daniel (Daan) van Heerden 
(appointed 27 May 2021)

Non-independent Non-Executive Director

Mr van Heerden holds a M.Com., a B.Eng Mining Engineering and has a Mine Managers Certificate from the SA Chamber of Mines. He has over 30 years’ experience in the mining industry and has obtained significant experience in managing mining operations in South Africa and abroad, both underground and open cast, for world-class major mining companies and for junior mining companies. He was responsible for new business development for two major mining companies and has experience in mining mergers and acquisitions. He is currently heading the Mining Engineering division of Minxcon, where he is involved in activities such as valuation, due diligence, finance structuring, change management required post the event, feasibility studies, life of mine plans, technical reviews and writing of technical reports for various commodities.

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Mr Rob Thomson 
(appointed 4 December 2020)

Independent Non-Executive Director

Robert Thomson has a 40 year mining career, including CEO/Executive Director and GM/Project Director roles building and commercialising junior company gold and base metals exploration projects into significant mining operations and businesses (e.g. Sepon. Chatree, Didipio, Wetar). From 2016 to 2021 he was Managing Director then non-executive director for South Africa focussed Theta Gold Mines Limited. He has a Bachelor of Engineering (Mining) from the University of Queensland, a MBA from the University of Wollongong and is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. Currently he is an independent non-executive director of Pacific Nickel Mines Limited and Bayrock Resources Limited.

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Ms Lindi Nkosi-Thomas 
(appointed 10 June 2024)

Non-Executive Director

A practising lawyer, Lindi is a Senior Counsel and a member of the Johannesburg Bar, having been called to the Bar in November 1994. In 2009 she was conferred the status of silk by the President of the Republic of South Africa.

As Senior Counsel, Lindi has acted in various litigious matters of national importance and has advised state-owned companies and the South African Government on numerous litigious matters and transactions of considerable scale. Between 2006 and 2023, Ms Nkosi-Thomas has also acted as a Judge of the High Court of South Africa on multiple occasions and continues to do so from time to time.

Among her various directorships, Ms Nkosi-Thomas serves as Chair of Miracle Upon Miracle Investments (MUM), the private company which owns the rights to the Bengwenyama PGM project through a joint ownership structure in which Southern Palladium holds a 70% stake in MUM, and the remaining 30% is held by a company wholly-owned by the local Bengwenyama community.

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Mr Andrew Cooke 

Company Secretary

Mr Cooke is a lawyer with BA.LLB (University of Sydney) and has over 30 years’ experience in law, corporate finance and as a Company Secretary of listed resource companies. He is responsible for corporate administration together with stock exchange and regulatory compliance. He is currently a non-executive, independent director of Kingsrose Mining Limited, and the Company Secretary of four other ASX listed companies.
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