Bernard Wessels

Managing Director, North America, Newmont Corporation

Bernard serves as the Managing Director for Newmont’s North American Business Unit, where he is dedicated to the safe, efficient, and responsible integration of the newly acquired Red Chris and Brucejack operations in northwestern British Columbia, following the Newcrest acquisition. Additionally, Bernard is overseeing the strategic divestment of four legacy assets in North America, ensuring a smooth transition and positioning the business for future growth.

Bernard was appointed Senior Vice President, North America for Newmont in October 2022, from his previous role as General Manager, Peñasquito. Bernard joined Newmont in 2017 as General Manager of the Ahafo mine and was appointed as Vice President of Productivity for the Africa region in 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. 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.