Norilsk Nickel boss resigns

The Zimbabwean-born 47-year-old Breese joined the mining concern about four years ago under the former owner and major shareholder LionOre International. This was before the 2007 acquisition of Tati Nickel by the Russian mining giant, Norilsk Nickel International from LionOre International.

Breese was the head of the Nickel Division outside Russia. His docket included Norilsk Nickel mining projects in Botswana, Rwanda, Finland, South Africa and Australia. Managing directors heading mining projects in the respective countries reported directly to him."When I took up my current portfolio over four years ago, the parent company then was LionOre International. I joined because I saw tremendous growth in Africa that also required a lot of optimisation. In other words, the challenge was to generate some requisite growth," said Breese.