New CEO for Whitby's Woodsmith Mine

After nearly 12 years at the helm of the project, Chris Fraser is stepping down as the Project’s CEO.

Mine owner Anglo American says it is making a change to the leadership of the project following its integration into Anglo American and ahead of the full project execution phase.

Tom McCulley, who has led the development of the Quellaveco copper project in Peru, will take over from Chris Fraser as CEO of Crop Nutrients.

After 12 years of driving the project from inception to its position today, Chris Fraser will step aside and take on a strategic projects role for Anglo American.

Mark Cutifani Chief Executive of Anglo American, said:

“We are enormously grateful to Chris Fraser for his founding vision over some 12 years in bringing Woodsmith to reality – a project with sustainability principles at the core of its design and in the product itself. His dedicated leadership in progressing the project this far and integrating it into our organisation, and doing so while making considerable construction progress during the upheavals of the pandemic, also deserves enormous credit. As we move towards full project execution, it is a natural time for Chris to step into a new role and I’m pleased that we will benefit from his experience as he works with us on a number of strategic projects.

“I am delighted that Tom McCulley, currently CEO of Anglo American in Peru, who has so skilfully steered our Quellaveco copper project to a point of pre-commissioning, on time and on budget, will now lead the development of Woodsmith as CEO of our Crop Nutrients business. I am confident that Tom and his team will finalise our plans and then deliver the project we all envisage safely and with great precision.”

Chris Fraser, outgoing Chief Executive of Anglo American’s Crop Nutrients business, said:

“The Woodsmith Project continues to deliver huge investment on the North Yorkshire Coast and on Teesside and has created thousands of jobs since its creation.  

“I am incredibly proud of the hardworking team at Anglo American that work tirelessly to deliver this project, which is not only benefiting local communities but also contributes to the UK economy and will eventually help to improve fertiliser practices and food production around the world, bringing significant environmental benefits.    

“I want to thank the many people that have supported the project over the years and I, like them, look forward to seeing it successfully come into production in the coming years.”

The changes to Tom McCulley’s and Chris Fraser’s roles are effective 1 January 2022.

The move comes as Anglo American says it has being conducting a detailed technical review of the Woodsmith polyhalite project since mid 2020 to ensure the technical and commercial integrity of the full scope of its design.

Now largely complete, the review has confirmed the findings of Anglo American’s due diligence that a number of elements of the project’s design would benefit from modification to bring it up to Anglo American’s safety and operating integrity standards and to optimise the value of the asset for the long term.

The Woodsmith team say they are further developing the engineering to optimise the configuration of the project, recognising the multi-decade life of the mine. Particular attention is on those aspects identified at the outset of Anglo American’s ownership – namely, the sinking of the two main shafts, the development of the underground mining area, and the changes required to accommodate both increased production capacity and the more efficient and scalable mining method of using only continuous miners; such improvements will also require the installation of additional ventilation earlier in the development of the underground mining area.

Anglo American says it expects that these changes to the design of the mine infrastructure – which will result in a different, enhanced configuration and therefore a different construction and production ramp-up schedule – will ensure that its exacting standards are met and the full commercial value of the asset is realised.

Mark Cutifani, Chief Executive of Anglo American, said:

“We are very happy with the high quality and exciting potential of Woodsmith, with the scale and quality of the polyhalite orebody pointing to a Q1 operating cost position and strong margins. This is a very long-life asset and we are going to take the necessary time to get every aspect of the design right to match our long term vision and value aspirations.

“We have said from the outset that we expect to make improvements and that we will execute certain elements of the construction differently and with a more conservative schedule. We expect to have completed our design engineering, capital budget and schedule at the end of 2022, with a fully optimised value case that recognises the upside potential we see in Woodsmith, and we will then submit the full project to the Board.”

In the meantime, construction of the major critical path elements of the project, principally the two main shafts and the mineral transport tunnel, is progressing, with approximately £500m ($0.7 billion) of capital expected to be invested in 2022.

Tom McCulley, age 53, has served as CEO of Anglo American in Peru since 2018 and Group Head of Projects for Anglo American since he joined Anglo American in 2015. Tom brings more than 25 years of international experience in major projects across the mining, oil and gas industries, and has led the development of Anglo American’s Quellaveco copper project in Peru that is expected to come onstream in mid-2022. Prior to joining Anglo American, he held several senior global roles at Newmont, including Vice President of Investment and Value Management and Vice President of Discovery and Development Planning and Services. Tom began his career at Fluor Corporation in international oil and gas and mining projects, developing his full project lifecycle expertise. Tom has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Mount Saint Mary’s University, Emmitsburg, USA.