Nols, who gained his mining engineering qualifications at the University of Witwatersand in South Africa, was a senior mine engineer at the Grasstree mine in Queensland before being promoted to the role of mining superintendent at Anglo, a position he had held for four years.

Nol was in control of ventilation, projects, budgets and mine planning at Grasstree.

When he was made mining superintendent at Anglo, he assumed control of the coordination of mine improvements in Anglo’s mine outbye areas, including roadworks, stoneworks, budgets, stonedusting, supplies, projects and water management.

Xstrata recently lost one of its recruits, Allison Golsby, from its Oaky North mine, despite being with the company less than a year.

Key personnel have also recently left Xstrata’s Hunter Valley New South Wales operations to join NuCoal.