Bernard Wessels
General Manager, Penasquito
Bernard holds a Baccalaureus Degree in Mining Engineering from the University of Johannesburg as well as Leadership and Project Management certificates from University of Witwatersrand and University of Pretoria. Bernard was appointed Vice President of Productivity for the Africa region in 2020 and has recently been appointed as General Manager Peñasquito. He was General Manager of the Ahafo mine from 2017 to 2020. As part of his role as General Manager he was responsible for the integration of both the Subika Underground and the Ahafo Mill Expansion projects into the Ahafo operations reaching commercial production in 2018 and 2019.
Before joining Newmont in 2017 he was appointed Vice president (2014-2017) for the Burnstone Underground Gold Project (Sibanye Stillwater) in South Africa. He also led 2 gold projects to Feasibility Phase with Witsgold as the COO (2012-2014) From 2005 to 2012 he held the position as General Manager with Harmony Gold and Anglo Platinum/Atlatsa where he led deep level Underground Gold and Platinum mines as well as an Open Pit mine for Harmony Gold.