People: Changing the guard

John Wallington, former head of mining colossus Anglo American’s £1.5 billion coal division, is the new chief executive officer of AIM-quoted Coal of Africa (CoAL), a company with potentially exciting coal projects in South Africa. He replaces trenchantly spoken Australian Simon Farrell, who becomes executive deputy chairman.

Now 52, Wallington, who joined Anglo American at the age of 23 and ran Anglo Coal from 2005 to 2008, can expect
a big cultural change in switching to an AIM-quoted minnow. But he has prepared himself for the move over the past two years by getting involved in two small Aussie and South African-quoted mining hopefuls.

Wallington joins CoAL at a time when the abrasive Farrell and his colleagues have been growing excited about two coking coal prospects in particular, Vele in Limpopo Province and Makhado, longer term but larger. Farrell, who has some pertinent comments about dealing with local vested interests in South Africa, remarks, ‘we need someone of John’s experience and skills to oversee CoAL’s next chapter as a coking and thermal coal producer.’

He adds, ‘I am very excited about it. I will now be able to focus on building CoAL into a world-class, international coal company.’