38
Innovators
ordinated joint ventures with Anglo Platinum,
Impala Platinum and Norilsk Nickle, a Russian
company.
He has been Chief Executive Officer of
Mopani since January 2015; spearheading
various forward-looking initiatives, including
the company’s flagship safety campaign,
SAFEMINING, the 10-year strategic plan to
turn Mopani into a world-class operation, and
formation of joint ventures between foreign
mine suppliers and Zambian companies.
In addition to his degree Mining Engineering,
Johan also holds a master’s degree in Project
Management.
The mining
sector is booming
in Zambia becau-
se of sev
eral
g
ov
ernment and priv
ate sector in-
frastructure dev
el
opments.
What do y
ou see for
the sector in the near term?
Zambia is known worldwide as a major producer of
copper and cobalt, thanks to among other things,
the privatization of the industry, which brought a sig-
nificant amount of investment to the Mining Sector
in the country, something that will probably keep
growing in the years to come.
Since the very first stages of copper mining in the
area known as the Copperbelt, the mining province
of Zambia in the early 1930s, the whole industry
became the driving economic and social player for
the country. Of course, a lot of things have changed
since then and many other resources have been dis-
covered, something that talks about the possibilities
and the opportunities that this country still has to
offer mostly in the fields of exploration and mining.
The production of different and additional minerals or
metals will take place for sure, thereby assuring the
continuity of the mining industry in Zambia.
The story
behind Mopani Copper Mines Pl
c star-
ted in 2
0
0
0
and,
as the company
cel
ebrated its
1
5
th anniv
ersary
,
it has al
so become one of the
main pl
ay
ers in the industry
.
What do y
ou think
has been the k
ey
for this success?
The mine itself started its operations in the year
1932, so the story behind us is much longer. Howe-
ver, in 2000, Mopani Copper Mines Plc acquired
Johan Christian Jansen was born on Novem-
ber 19, 1960 at Vredefort in South Africa as
the first-born of six sons of a farmer-cum-
miner.
He started his foundational education at
Salomon Senekal Primary School, about 25
km from the farm before his family relocated to
the mining town of Rustenburg in 1972, where
Johan’s father found work on a mine.
In 1978, Johan completed his school career in
Rustenburg and went on to attend the matric
farewell before obtaining a degree in Mining
Engineering at the University of Pretoria. He
then started working at the same mine as his
father.
His determination and dedication to duty
saw him rapidly work his way up through the
ranks as a miner, supervisor, mine overseer
and finally manager. In no time, Johan’s skills
caught the attention of other competing mines
to the effect that in 1996, he was able to join
Lonmin Platinum as underground manager,
and later on as mine manager and eventua-
lly a member of the executive management
team responsible for mining operations in the
Limpopo Province.
As a member of the executive management
team at Lonmin Platinum, Johan was actively
involved in the development of new mining
equipment, among others, the loco drill rig
and Alpine reef cutter. He was also one of the
pioneers in the field of ultra-low profile mining
equipment.
His last station – before joining Mopani Copper
Mines Plc as Chief Operating Officer in 2013 –
was at Rainbow Minerals, where he served as
Executive for Technology from 2008 and co-
MR.
JOHAN JANSEN
Chief Executive Officer
Mopani Copper Mines Pl
c
