Kinross president, CEO steps down

Robert Buchan, the president and CEO of Toronto-based Kinross Gold, has announced that he will step down following the company's AGM on April 27 and assume the role of non-executive chairman. Buchan, 57, who is from Scotland, founded Kinross in 1993. After he oversaw a merger with TVX Gold and Echo Bay Mines a decade later the company became the world's seventh-largest gold producer. In Alaska Kinross owns and operates the Fort Knox and True North mines near Fairbanks.

"Starting Kinross in 1993 with 25,000 ounces of annual production and building it to what it is today has been a remarkable journey," Buchan said. "I feel certain that the company will be able to maintain its position as one of the world's senior gold producers." The board of directors has established a search committee that will work with outside advisors to identify a replacement for Buchan.

"Bob Buchan wanted to wait until the company was in an excellent position before he stepped back," Christopher Hill, Kinross's vice president for investor relations, told Mining News. The company's acquisition of the remaining 51 percent of Paracatu mine in Brazil last December, giving it 100 percent ownership, was a recent success, Hill said. Kinross now has almost 20 million ounces of gold in reserve, he added.