Tommie van der Walt

Career chronology

• Effective 20 January 2025; current at cutoff: Arafura Rare Earths Limited — Chief Projects Officer. Update on Project Leadership (Page 1; appointment effective date); Tommie van der Walt profile (Current role and project remit)

• Appointed June 2023; role period end not precisely stated in appointment release: Ionic Rare Earths Limited — Chief Operating Officer. Ionic Rare Earths appoints Tommie van der Walt as Chief Operating Officer (Appointment, COO remit and prior career)

• Issuer biographies describe prior GM Projects and Studies Africa at EMR Capital and Africa Regional Project Director at Newmont; exact dates not disclosed: EMR Capital / Newmont — Project and operations leadership in Africa. Tommie van der Walt profile (Career biography); Update on Project Leadership (Career biography)

Education and qualifications

Engineering, business and project-management qualifications reported

By 2025-01-20 · issuer reported · low materiality

Arafura and Ionic report a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical), master's-level business/management qualification and PhD in business administration, as well as professional engineering registration. The Ionic appointment notice specifies qualifications including BEng from Pretoria, MSc business management from Cape Town and PhD business administration from North West University. These are issuer disclosures and were not independently verified.

Attribution: Responsibility not applicable. Credentials are reported in company appointment materials; independent registration and university checks were not performed.

Relevance: Relevant to technical and project leadership.

Tommie van der Walt profile (Qualifications); Ionic Rare Earths appoints Tommie van der Walt as Chief Operating Officer (Qualifications and institutions)

Personal achievements

Arafura credits him with on-schedule delivery leadership at Ahafo

Prior Newmont tenure; recounted by Arafura in 2024–2026 · issuer reported · medium materiality

Arafura describes van der Walt as Newmont's Africa Regional Project Director and credits him with delivery of the US$1.7 billion Ahafo project on schedule. Ionic's 2023 appointment announcement describes the project cost differently (US$2 billion). The achievement and cost are issuer-reported; the differing cost figures are preserved rather than reconciled, and no independent project-delivery audit was reviewed.

Attribution: Individual involvement documented. The issuer biographies directly credit him with project leadership and on-schedule delivery; no independent attribution or cost reconciliation was found.

Relevance: Relevant prior project-delivery evidence for a Chief Projects Officer leading a large rare-earth construction project.

Tommie van der Walt profile (Biography; Newmont/Ahafo project leadership and stated cost); Update on Project Leadership (Page 1; Ahafo delivery claim); Ionic Rare Earths appoints Tommie van der Walt as Chief Operating Officer (Page 1; Ahafo project cost stated as US$2 billion)

Suitability for the current role

Project-construction experience fits Arafura's current stage; delivery remains in progress

2025-01-20 to cutoff; early construction reported 2026-10-30 · analyst inference · medium materiality

The appointment notice and profile identify van der Walt's remit and prior projects. Arafura's September 2026 quarterly report says early access/mobilisation and engineering/procurement work were underway and the first construction contract was awarded. Construction remains at an early stage; the report does not quantify a personal contribution or establish completed project delivery.

Attribution: Responsibility not applicable. This is an analytical fit assessment; it does not assign company progress or future delivery to him individually.

Relevance: Directly relevant to the CPO remit and Nolans execution risk.

Update on Project Leadership (Page 1; appointment and project experience); Quarterly Activities Report and Appendix 5B for period ending 30 September 2026 (Pages 1 and 3; early construction, first contract and procurement)

Evidence gaps

• Career dates before Arafura are approximate or undisclosed, and issuer biographies provide the main support for Newmont/Ahafo achievement.

• Arafura and Ionic describe the Ahafo project value differently (US$1.7bn and US$2bn); the cost conflict is not resolved here.

• The EPBC report's signed declaration is not independent evidence that every condition was met; no personal adverse environmental finding was identified.

• Nolans project delivery remains early-stage and company-reported; individual CPO contribution is not separately quantified.

• No exhaustive criminal, sanctions, litigation or regulatory-record search was performed.