He’ll step down at the end of November.
James Campbell is resigning as CEO of Rockwell Diamonds.
He has “agreed on a structured handover before leaving at the end of November 2016 as per his employment contract,” the Vancouver, Canada-based diamond mining and development company announced.
Campbell will continue to serve as a director for Rockwell, “working closely with the board and the newly appointed Executive Officer Tjaart Willemse,” according to the announcement.
The company explained that the board recently conducted a strategic review and, following the exit of two senior managers, a management review.
In explaining the strategic review, the company stated:
“The goal was to evaluate the positioning of Rockwell in the diamond mining space, as well as the effectiveness of defined strategies that were implemented over the past period by the company. This review included the performance of its Remhoogte acquisition, which has been below plan, and the construction of the new Wouterspan plant that is behind schedule with a higher cost. Notwithstanding this, the first phase of the wet plant at Wouterspan, being the first two of four circuits, is substantially complete and diamond grades are in line with expectations.”
As for the management review, “The board determined that further intervention on operations and plant completion was necessary, while new opportunities are being assessed.”
Tjaart will take on “chief executive authority for day to day operations and plant completion” and report to the board chairman. He’s a mining engineer by profession and has spent 25 years in senior operational, production and executive management roles, particularly in operating plants with De Beers in South Africa.
In a development that the company said was unrelated, Stephen Dietrich and Rick Menell resigned as directors. Dietrich resigned because of personal health issues and Menell stepped down because of a busy schedule, according to Rockwell.
They will be replaced by the appointment of Richard Mhlontlo, who will represent Rockwell’s Black Economic Empowerment shareholder. Mhlontlo was previously the group human resource and industrial relations manager for Rockwell.