PERSONALITY PROFILE COMPLIANCY
In conversation with… Roger Baxter, CEO of the Minerals Council South Africa Rainmaker and pot-stirrer – an accolade bestowed on him more than 10 years ago in MiningMx’s annual 100 Most Influential People in Africa’s Mining Sector publication – Roger Baxter has been making his presence felt as the CEO of the Minerals Council of South Africa since 2015.
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t’s a description that he’s proud of, along with being voted ‘Mining Thought Leader of the Year’ in 2020 by Mining Review Africa. Fiercely committed to the success of the country’s mining industry, he pulls no punches when it comes to addressing important matters at the highest levels, which include saving lives and livelihoods while urging the best possible mining laws to grow one of South Africa’s biggest employers. Leading from the front Roger has always led from the front. In 1992, he was involved in mineral policy discussions with the ANC, and he has become a powerful voice in the mining, economic, investment, transformation, and tax policy arenas. Aside from being a board member of the BUSA Econpol and its Growth Task Team, he is on the Board of the TEBA Trust, which provides recruitment and other services to mineworkers.
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He is also vice chairman of both the Mining Industry Association of South Africa and the International Associations Working Group (part of the International Council on Mining) and active in the International Council on Mining and Metals. If that’s not enough, Roger has thrown his considerable clout behind the rebranding of the Chamber of Mines into the Minerals Council South Africa. He has an unrelenting focus on good governance and strategy, and an unwavering commitment to investment and transformation to address mining’s legacy in the country and reposition it as a modern, ethical organisation, steadfastly promoting and protecting the interests of its members which generate 90% of SA’s annual mineral production by value. “There’s been a huge improvement in the government/mining industry relationship over the last couple of years,” he says, adding that it’s been somewhat surprisingly
SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA SEPTEMBER 2021
strengthened by Covid-19 exigencies. “The Council’s coordination of the mining industry response to the pandemic is a reminder to the powers-that-be that it’s a force for good.”
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