A young Debswana manager has been appointed to an executive position at a De Beers Canada mine for a period of two years. Mr Edwin Elias, a Senior Manager – Ore Processing at Jwaneng Mine will be joining Victor Mine in Ontario, Canada in an executive role of Process and Maintenance Manager. Edwin, who is a Metallurgical Engineer by training, has been with Debswana for about 10 years and in those years he has demonstrated exceptional technical and leadership skills which have landed him this great opportunity to learn from a world class operation while at the same time using his experience at the world’s richest mine to add value to Victor Mine.
 
In this new role, Elias’ responsibilities will be to safely direct, manage and optimize the diamond treatment process at Victor Mine while also focusing on the  development of medium to long term plans to ensure sustainable achievement of key objectives with regards to process and people.
 
The University of Missouri- Rolla and London Business School graduate could not contain his excitement when talking about his new role. ‘This is going to be a very exciting time for me. I’m anticipating a lot of challenges. De Beers Canada has performed relatively well on safety and other production related matters and the challenge I will have will be to contribute towards sustaining the mine’s positive trends and ensure  continuous improvement.’ he said.
 
Elias’ secondment is a result of a robust Debswana talent management programme. Through this programme, a pool of top performing employees are identified and developed for leadership roles. Edwin was identified as one of the company’s premium top talent and as part of his development, Debswana identified this opportunity and afforded it to him.
 
‘I feel humbled and ecstatic about the opportunity and I can assure you that I will focus and deliver beyond expectation during my tenure in Canada. Debswana has indeed offered me an opportunity of a lifetime, and I will come back having acquired the necessary skills and knowledge required to drive Debswana to a high performance organization.’
 
Commenting on the development, the General Manager of Jwaneng Mine, Balisi Bonyongo was full of praise for Edwin. ‘Edwin is a brilliant engineer and an insightful leader who, without doubt will make a positive mark at Victor Mine and make Debswana and Botswana proud. I’m confident he will bring a great set of skills to take this organization to another level upon completion of his stint in Canada.’
 
Edwin is expected to join Victor Mine at the end of March 2011.
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