At 69, an age when many would be looking to slow down and ease into retirement, Ian Cockerill has taken on the full-time, challenging role of running mid-tier West African gold miner Endeavour Mining. ‘Slowing down’ for a top mining executive usually means a shift to a statesman-type role taking on a few plum non-executive directorships and then spending more time on other activities.
In Cockerill’s case, this is likely to mean indulging his long-running support of conservation organisations and getting into the bush more often. And that scenario looks particularly likely when you consider the list of what Cockerill has already achieved in his 50-odd-year career, starting out as a geologist with an honours degree from London University. He has little left to prove or experience.
He rapidly made his way up the ranks at De Beers and Anglo American to become GM of Anglo American’s Elandsrand gold mine and was then appointed CEO of the newly formed Gold Fields when it was created from the merger of the former GenGold with the former Gold Fields of South Africa’s gold mines. He followed that by becoming CEO of Anglo American Coal and then moved into what he terms his “portfolio career”. During that period he held key positions including the chairmanship of the BlackRock World Mining Trust. He became lead independent director of Ivanhoe Mines and a non-executive director of BHP, a role he recently relinquished.
In the process Cockerill frequently made the headlines, having fought off a hostile takeover bid from Harmony Gold while at Gold Fields. He was then unceremoniously dumped from Anglo Coal by then Anglo CEO Cynthia Carroll, who had headhunted him for the job and lured him out of Gold Fields just 20 months previously.
But Cockerill is now running a troubled gold miner, having replaced the former CEO, who was fired for what have been termed “dodgy” money transfers out of the company. What’s more, he gave up his prestigious directorship at BHP to do this and now spends his life shifting from his homes in the UK and South Africa as well as offices in London, Monaco and Abidjan, where Endeavour has its regional hub.
So why take on the job?
“A lot of people have asked me that question. In an earlier life I must have been a fireman because instead of displaying rational behaviour in situations like this and running away I tend to run towards them.
“I was deputy chairman of Endeavour where we had a normal succession plan and an emergency succession plan. Probably somewhat stupidly I had signed up for the emergency plan – not thinking, like you do with insurance, you ever need to cash it in.
“Then with Sébastian [former Endeavour CEO Sébastian de Montessus] having to go, we were in a bit of a quandary and I was asked to do it full time. My reaction was that you sign up for these jobs and you have a kind of responsibility to step up to the plate when the shit hits the fan.”
Cockerill said he guaranteed the board that he would do the job for three years but would be happy to leave sooner if they found a suitable full-time CEO to replace him. “I love working. I love mining. I love to travel and meet people. I love intellectual and professional challenges which Endeavour brings and, fundamentally, Endeavour is a very sound business which has some short-term issues.
“It was too much of an interesting challenge to walk away from and I am thoroughly enjoying what I am doing.”
Sweet spot
Is he up to the job at the age of 69? “That’s a fair question,” Cockerill replies.
“It was something my wife and I had to think about. My view is that a situation like this provides its own adrenalin and energy. I have always been a high-energy individual and blessed with good health and, as long as that continues, as long as I feel physically and mentally able to do it, then I will do it.
“If I feel I am not able to do it … and, trust me, my wife will be the first one to say to me ‘Stop! Enough!’ But, after just two months in the job, she told me that she had not seen me this energised and fired up for a long, long time.”
Cockerill said he saw his main task at Endeavour as making sure the group got back to its sweet spot of annual gold production of 1.5 million ounces through organic growth with continued exploration success.
“I am a hands-on manager but I see my role as being more of a guide and mentor than I was previously when running Gold Fields. I am now far more willing and able to step back and let the team get on with it while providing the occasional pat on the back and kick up the backside.”
Reflecting on some of the major developments in his career, Cockerill maintains he made the correct decision to buy the South Deep mine when running Gold Fields, even though the mine turned into a millstone around the group’s neck for the following decade, losing money hand over fist because of constant technical problems.
“I do not regret the decision to buy that mine. It’s a great orebody but the key decision that I got wrong was that we tried desperately to continue as a producing operation. With hindsight, the correct decision should have been to stop production, complete the project properly and then take it forward.”
‘Booted by Cynthia’
Asked about his experiences at Anglo American after leaving Gold Fields, Cockerill said he moved because he believed CEOs had a life cycle of between five to seven years. “I had been at Gold Fields for nine years. It was time to for me to re-juggle myself. The Anglo offer was a professional challenge to see if I could move on from Gold Fields and go and play in another space.
I was disappointed to leave [Anglo] but glad not to be part of what I thought was the creation of a chaotic and illogical structure. And the rest is history. We all know what happened – Ian Cockerill, Endeavour Mining
“When I got booted by Cynthia it was as part of a major reshuffle and the whole of what I would call the strategic business unit leadership of all the Anglo divisions was basically put on the street.
“At the time I was gutted. It was disappointing to be fired for doing a good job. I had taken Anglo Coal from being the third or fourth most important contributor to Anglo’s earnings to being the second most important contributor.
“I was disappointed to leave but glad not to be part of what I thought was the creation of a chaotic and illogical structure. And the rest is history. We all know what happened,” he said.
“But these things happen. If you sit and angst over it the only person who is going to get an ulcer is you. It ended up being a fantastic opportunity for me because after that I started my portfolio career.
“In the 14 years since leaving Anglo I have had some fascinating opportunities and involvements with different groups which I never would have had if I had stayed at Anglo.”
Risky business in West Africa? It’s relative
ENDEAVOUR Mining runs four mines located in three West African countries: Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Senegal, and this is an aspect that seems to worry some Western world investors because of recent political developments in the region. These include the threat of jihadist revolutionaries moving south from the Sahel area as well as recent military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea coupled with an apparent shift by the new regimes away from the West.
In particular there are concerns over a growing Russian influence in West Africa.
Cockerill, like some of his peers operating in West Africa, such as B2Gold CEO Clive Johnson, plays such fears down. “Risk is very much in the eye of the beholder. You could argue quite conclusively that the risk of mining in America is very high, certainly in many states, for a variety of reasons.
“The one thing you learn from operating in Africa is to manage volatility. You learn to make yourself resilient and to cope with unpredictability and inconsistency. If you want a quiet nine-to-five life then working anywhere in Africa can be extremely challenging, but West Africa today is the single largest gold-producing area in the world.”
It is also one of the most prospective areas in the world for gold and has a relatively short time period for permitting, says Cockerill. Projects can be permitted and then implemented in a much shorter time period than anywhere else in the world. The reason is that West African governments have realised that developing a gold mine in their own backyard can be lucrative. “If you understand West Africa and you have the right people and you know how to manage the risks, then the rewards certainly justify those risks.”
Turning to geopolitics, Cockerill said the history of West Africa showed a pattern of ebb and flow over time. “You had the colonial power – France – in there for a long time and then they got kicked out. The Russians came in during the 60s and 70s, then they retreated and the French came back in. Now the French are going again.
“I would argue it’s part of a natural cycle. What we are seeing is behaviour from governments that you would expect. They are looking for a bigger share of the economic pie.”
Cockerill said a big positive in West Africa was a recognition of the rule of law. During an illegal strike at Endeavour’s Houndé mine in Burkina Faso, Endeavour won a court decision ruling the strike illegal. “Then the actual prosecutor went out to the mine and personally handed down the judgement to the strikers. He told them that if they did not go back to work they would be fined for every hour that they did not work. Can you honestly say that would happen elsewhere?”
He added: “I am less inclined to listen to stories about working in OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] countries. Fine, you would expect things there to go a certain way but probably the returns are not what they would be elsewhere.
“The issues [in West Africa] are: do you understand the level of risk?; do you understand the level of volatility?; and do you have the right people with the right mentality and attitude who can actually cope with that and work in a constructive atmosphere with government?
“I have always found if you have an open communication, you can get through.”