PERSONALITY PROFILE

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.

It’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.

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 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.”

The early years

Roger attended Peterhouse Boys’ School in Zimbabwe, matriculating with top marks in 1984 and leaving behind a sporting legacy that included playing 1st XV rugby, setting two inter-school relay high jump records, and captaining the school shooting team.

Next stop was the University of Natal, where he finished with a post-graduate economics degree in 1990.

His earlier appointments included Chief Economist at the then-Chamber of Mines followed by almost a year as the head of the Industry Analysis team at Rio Tinto Alcan in Montreal in Canada. On his return to South Africa, he took up the position of Senior Executive, Strategy, Economics and Legal at the Chamber of Mines.

In May 2015, he was offered the job of CEO of the organisation and oversaw its transformation into the Minerals Council of South Africa.

A typical day

From providing inspired leadership to the team along with promoting innovative support, implementing sound strategic and risk management planning processes, executing Board-approved strategic plans, ensuring the optimal structuring and funding of the Council to driving key debates with government and other key stakeholders, it’s all in a day’s work for Roger. Add to this the maintenance of effective working relationships with office bearers, the Board, and members, and constantly modernising the brand, its technology and facilities, and one wonders where he gets time out. “Right now, my focus is on promoting and protecting members’ collective interests and helping to achieve the vision of the Minerals Council’s “#MakeMiningMatter” for South Africa,” he says.

Roger’s overview of the mining sector

“In December last year, we were sitting with an energy availability factor (EAF) of just above 50 per cent — the target in the integrated resource plan (IRP) talks about a 75 per cent energy availability factor. At a global level, the general focus on energy availability factors sits at about 85 per cent, which, believe it or not, was where Eskom was prior to the 2007/2008 load shedding crisis. That initiated the process of decline. Whatever the reasons, I think it’s important to put in context the impact of that lack of supply. If you just look at last year, for mining specifically, we estimate that three per cent of production was lost because of load shedding in the mining sector alone. The impact on the economy is obviously much more significant.”

He continues: “Now, if we look at the next ten years, I think it is important to note the fact that another 10 to 11 GW of older generation coal-fired power plant will be taken off the network. By 2030, the IRP talks about 5GW of additional storage capability, 8,3 GW of additional PV (solar photovoltaic) facilities, and another 18 GW of wind. But the deadlines have all been pushed out into 2023, 2024 and beyond. Eskom’s low energy availability factor is a major short-term crisis for South Africa. We’ve been engaging extensively with Eskom, and in particular with its CEO Andre de Ruyter and his senior executive team, and we’re working closely on how we may help improve the situation. But it is a process with a lot of challenges.”

“Our view,” he adds, “is that in the short and medium term, we’re going to see a significant phase-out of older generation power stations, so we need to bring on a lot more capacity pretty quickly and without pushing pricing up. Many of our large scale, energy-intensive businesses have been hit with electricity price increases of up to 523% in the last decade. This excludes recent court orders in favour of Eskom in respect of the regulatory clearing account, which will probably push up the electricity price by another 10 per cent.”

Roger says that the Council is working closely with Eskom, government, and other stakeholders. “We’re trying to unblock these things as we go forward, because, ultimately, having this extra capacity coming on is going to be critical to enabling mining and the economy in general to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. We want to be part of the solution, and we think we certainly are able to be.”