Francois succeeds Dean Gehring, who served as interim CTO and chief integration officer. Dean will exit his role in early July.
Newmont Corporation, an American gold mining company based in Colorado, USA and the world’s largest gold mining company, has promoted Francois Hardy to the role of CTO, effective 1 May 2024.
He succeeds Dean Gehring, who served as interim CTO and concurrently as the mining giant’s chief integration officer. Following a period of transition, Dean will leave the company in early July.
Francois previously served at group head: mineral resource management before being promoted to the position of CTO. He brings more than 30 years of technical and operational experience in mining to the role. He joined Newmont in 2002 and has held roles such as group head: exploration, MD Africa and GM Tanami, and has spent 22 years with the mining company now.
Before joining Newmont, Francois held executive positions at Avmin and De Beers Consolidated Mines. According to Newmont, he steps into the new role at a pivotal moment in the company’s history and will be tasked with looking for new ways to enhance Newmont’s operations through innovation and new technologies.
Francois graduated from the Technikon Witwatersrand (now University of Johannesburg) with a BSc in mine engineering and a national higher diploma in metalliferous mining from the same institution.
“Francois is a strong leader with deep technical experience and a demonstrable track record of improving operating performance. His appointment will further strengthen Newmont’s executive leadership team, adding valuable technological expertise, which will be central to our ongoing success as a business,” says Tom Palmer, Newmont president and CEO.
