Norton today said it had appointed former CITIC Pacific Mining chief operating officer Dianmin Chen as its new managing director and chief executive officer.

Chen, a mining engineer by trade, boasts an impressive resume, having worked with heavyweight Barrick Gold from 1997 to 2007.

Following his stint with Barrick, Chen was deputy general manager and then executive director and GM at Sino Jinfeng Mining, a subsidiary of Sino Gold Corporation.

He stayed with the company until 2009 and was responsible for all aspects of mining operations and management for the Jinfeng gold mine in China.

In 2009 Chen was hired by CITIC, where he was responsible for the development of a “large magnetite iron ore mine in Western Australia”, most likely the Sino Iron project.

Prior to joining Norton, Chen was the executive director and CEO of CaNickel Mining.

Norton chairman Jinghe Chen said Dianmin Chen would make a solid contribution to the company.

“The Norton board is extremely enthusiastic about securing the services of an executive with Dr. Chen’s broad resources industry background and business experience,” he said.

Chen will be provided with a base salary of $450,000 per annum and subject to shareholder approval, will be issued 8 million unlisted options for no consideration.

Norton said Labuschagne, who was appointed in 2010, had been instrumental in driving the company’s strong operational results, reducing the company’s debt levels and negotiating the terms of the off-market takeover bid for the company.

“He also played a key role in the settlement of the hedge litigation with Lehman Brothers Commercial Corp in 2010 and the subsequent refinance with Merrill Lynch on favourable terms,” the company said.

In more management changes, Norton appointed Dané van Heerden as its acting chief financial officer.

Van Heerden is currently employed as Norton’s chief financial controller and will act as CFO until a permanent CFO is appointed.

Van Heerden takes over the position from Robert Brainsbury, who has agreed to step down as CFO and co-company secretary.



The management changes coincide with Zijin gaining an 89.15% interest in Norton following the closure of the off-market takeover for the company.

The 25c per share offer made by Zijin in June will see shareholders receive a special dividend of 2c per share to be paid by Norton to take the total price to 27c.

Prior to this, Zijin had retained a 47.27% stake in the company.

While Zijin has officially gained control of Norton it has fallen short of being able to proceed with completing the acquisition because its interest is below 90%.

Norton, which operates the Paddington gold mine, shipped 38,003 ounces of gold during the June quarter and produced 150,696oz of gold in the 2011-12 financial year.

Shares in Norton were unchanged in morning trade at 21c.