Dear MMTA members,
It is with great pleasure I am taking up the role of General Manager of the Minor Metals Trade Association as from 2nd January 2019. I am indeed very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Maria Cox until April and I am aware it is a big pair of shoes to fill!
So, what can I tell you about myself, well, I started my working career in Stockholm, Sweden, and I have been in the metals sales & marketing business for 35 years. My first ten years were focused on semi-manufactured precious metals products sales to the jewellery industry: firstly, based in Sweden and then in Hong Kong. I worked with Johnson Matthey (JM) and also enjoyed a brief one-year stint with the Swedish and Norwegian precious metal manufacturer Boliden KA Rasmussen. Upon meeting my future husband in Hong Kong at the HK Services Saddle Club through our shared interest in horses, I subsequently moved to Great Britain in 1993 where I took up a sales & marketing role with Canadian miner Noranda which started my very long and fun journey with one of MMTA’s minor metals – Molybdenum. When Rio Tinto (RT) decided to take the Kennecott Utah Copper moly agency back in-house, I moved across to Rio Tinto.
During my 22-year career with RT, I stayed in sales & marketing throughout, taking on larger roles in this function. My last four years were in the General Manager role responsible for the sales & marketing of all output from RT’s Kennecott Utah Copper mine and processing facilities in Salt Lake City. The output included both intermediate and finished goods products across multiple internal and external tolling processes. The product range included: copper cathode and concentrates, molybdenum, selenium and lead-carbonate concentrates, molybdenum oxide, ferromolybdenum, gold and silver bars, rhenium pellets and powder, and sulphuric acid.
I enjoyed all aspects of this business, however moly and the other by-products were always close to my heart due to the complexity of the supply chain and the global nature of this business.
During the past 10 years I have also been actively engaged on the International Molybdenum Association’s (IMOA) Management, Executive and Market Development Committees, and over the past two years on the International Copper Association’s (ICA) Advisory Committee. I thoroughly enjoyed this work and engagement with an extensive network of professionals in these organisations and with their respective membership, making it a most useful experience for my new role with the MMTA.
It is with great excitement that I am taking up my role with the MMTA and I am looking forward to bringing my several years of industry metal expertise and commodity association experience to this role whilst also learning more from you – the MMTA membership, about the minor metals that are of vital importance not only to each and everyone of you, but also of crucial importance for our world to quite literally go around. In the case of some minor metals, such as rhenium for example, one could say it literally ‘propels our globe’! Working with the MMTA Board of Directors and our membership, the team and I are looking forward to further supporting increased awareness of the essentiality of minor metals for our world to continuously operate in the most efficient way. The increased performance and productivity of alloys and the processes in which they are used are absolute key.
I am indeed looking forward to connecting with you over the coming weeks and also meeting with you at some of our upcoming association events.
