Kloppers will take the reigns from Chip Goodyear on October 1. Goodyear announced his retirement in February.

Kloppers will remain as chief executive of the non-ferrous division until his shift to the top job, and his replacement will be announced in due course.

Among those in the senior management team, to be known as the group management committee, is Marcus Randolph, who has moved from his position as chief organisation development officer to chief executive of ferrous and coal divisions.

Randolph is taking over the position from Chris Lynch – a former frontrunner to replace Goodyear – who announced his resignation only a week after Kloppers was named as chief executive elect.

Karen Wood has moved from chief governance officer and group company secretary to chief people officer.

The new addition to the executive team will be Alberto Calderon, who has most recently served as president of the diamonds and specialty products customer sector group.

Mike Yeager and Alex Vanselow will remain in their existing positions as chief executive petroleum and chief financial officer respectively.

The company has created a new customer sector group for uranium and its Olympic Dam project in South Australia.

The group will be headed by Graeme Hunt, BHPB’s aluminium president, and will be separate from the base metals division, signalling the importance of uranium and the Olympic Dam project.

“The separation reflects the importance of both the asset and the expansion project in BHP Billion’s project pipeline and is recognition of the growing market for uranium to help meet the world’s energy needs,” BHPB said.

Shares in BHPB slipped 66c to close yesterday at $37.80 and have gained 65c to $38.45 in morning trade.