A junior minister in a authorities that fought drug lord Pablo Escobar and his Medellín Cartel, Calderón was chief government of Orica Ltd, an Australian explosives maker, till February this yr.
The Ivy League economist, who was one of many main candidates for the highest job at BHP earlier than the place went to Andrew Mackenzie, as soon as additionally ran Cerrejón Coal, which was recently acquired by Glencore.
The world’s third-biggest gold miner had been on the hunt for a brand new chief government for the reason that sudden departure of Kelvin Dushnisky final yr
Calderón’s expertise and contacts within the residence nation will turn out to be useful as AngloGold is transferring ahead with key expansions in Colombia, together with its Gramalote three way partnership with B2Gold (TSX:BTO) (NYSE:BTG). The asset is on the centre of long-dragged out mining rights dispute with Canada’s Zonte Metals that remains active.
Calderón stated one in every of his priorities might be to enhance the credibility of AngloGold Ashanti with traders, noting that the No. 3 gold producer is buying and selling far decrease than greater rivals Newmont and Barrick.
AngloGold Ashanti has had a foul yr, with the corporate’s lack of a everlasting chief government officer and a suspension of its Obuasi mine in Ghana weighing on the inventory.
Buyers reacted positively to the appointment of Calderón. The corporate’s shares climbed as a lot as in 6.7% pre-market in New York and closed virtually 6% greater in in Johannesburg, probably the most in seven weeks.
The brand new CEO should tackle the corporate’s battle to repatriate greater than $461 million of its revenue from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and resolve challenges with worth added tax with the federal government in Tanzania.
He might also need to determine whether or not AngloGold ought to transfer its major itemizing from Johannesburg — a subject discussed for years.
BMO metals and mining analyst, Raj Ray, stated Calderón comes at at time thought of transitional years for many of AngloGold’s operations, as the corporate focuses on ore reserves improvement.
“[He] is predicated out of Melbourne, Australia, so it will likely be attention-grabbing to see how he goes about constructing familiarity and understanding of the varied operations rapidly given the journey restrictions nonetheless in place,” Ray stated in a observe to traders.
Christine Ramon will stay as interim CEO as Calderón assumes the place, and she’s going to return to her function as the corporate’s CFO.
Throughout her yr on the high job, Ramon la out a plan to broaden output at key operations in Tanzania, Ghana and Guinea. She additionally mentioned investing greater than $2 billion in two new mines in Colombia — Quebradona (copper-gold) and Gramalote (gold) — from 2022.
