Africa does not need more strategy decks. It needs execution that unlocks $10M-$100M+ in lost value.

I’m Jean Marais, Founder & Group Executive Chairman, Sanodea Group. I work with boards, CEOs, investors, and leadership teams when value loss has become material across mining, commodities, industrial assets, and capital programmes.

The mandate is direct: expose the constraint, align the owners, and recover value in cash, margin, production, capital control, or commercial outcome.

Unlock $10M-$100M+ Engage Sanodea
30+ years senior executive & board experience 4 continents / 20+ countries Africa, Europe, Middle East & global markets Multi-asset mandate mining, industrial, commodities & capital programmes

Executive profile

Jean Marais

Jean Marais is the Founder & Group Executive Chairman, Sanodea Group. Sanodea is built for mining, industrial, commodities, and asset-intensive environments where value loss is measured in tens or hundreds of millions.

He brings more than 30 years of senior executive and board-level experience across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and global asset-intensive sectors. His record spans P&L leadership, mine turnarounds, capital programmes, transactions, digital transformation, and long-cycle value preservation.

His mandate is practical: identify where $10M-$100M+ is being lost, align leadership around the true constraint, and create visible operating movement.

Operating record

Multi-asset execution authority.

Jean has led and advised across mining, industrial operations, commodities value chains, capital programmes, and transformation environments where economics depend on throughput, uptime, recovery, cost discipline, commercial control, and capital delivery.

Sanodea applies that operating lens to locate material leakage, create executive alignment, and protect the gains once recovery begins.

Boardroom strategy translated into asset-level accountability Transaction, divestment, handover, and compliance execution Mining digital transformation linked to measurable operating value Commercial discipline across commodity-linked value chains
$2.1B+P&L leadership $400M+cost optimisation $2B+capital programmes led $10M-$100M+value recovery mandate
Jean Marais in an executive office overlooking mining operations
01 · Transaction mandate Value, risk, compliance, and stakeholder alignment.
Jean Marais reviewing an operational perspective board at a mining site
02 · Operational validation From executive decision to asset-level execution.
Jean Marais with the West African mine leadership team after receiving Best Mining Company in Ghana recognition during COVID-19
03 · Award-winning MD leadership Best Mining Company in Ghana during COVID-19, a first in the mine’s 20+ year history.

Selected achievements

Evidence of execution where the value at stake was material.

This is operating evidence from live mining and asset-intensive mandates where regulatory approval, handover, stakeholder confidence, cost, capital, digital execution, and enterprise value had to move together.

The common thread is disciplined execution under pressure: divestments, compliance, cost reduction, mine-life extension, capital governance, and systems that make value more visible.

$285M transaction, divestment, closure, and handover proof $2B+ capital programme and enterprise growth exposure $400M+ cost savings through operating model redesign

When value is material, leadership must hold regulators, boards, operators, capital owners, communities, and markets in view without losing the economic result.

01

Transactions, divestments & handovers

  • $100M West African mine sale: divestment, approval, and stakeholder alignment.
  • $120M mine divestment: end-to-end transaction execution with zero compliance breaches.
  • $65M closure & handover: responsible transition to state authorities.
02

Operational turnaround & capital value creation

  • Gold mine turnaround: reduced AISC by approximately 50% and extended mine life by four profitable years.
  • $2B capital expansion: large-scale growth, jobs, and long-term community value.
  • $400M global cost savings: operating model redesign, asset optimisation, and performance transformation.
03

Digital execution & national recognition

  • ERP rollout excellence: multi-country deployments recognised for execution quality.
  • Best Mining Company in Ghana during COVID-19: first win in 20+ years of mine history, against 13 competing mines.
04

Community, wellness & legacy outcomes

  • Health, wellness & community: programmes improving healthcare access and measurable outcomes.
  • Legacy structuring: programmes supporting long-term value preservation beyond operations.

$10M-$100M+ recovery mandate

The value conversation changes when the losses are material.

In asset-intensive environments, small movements in throughput, availability, recovery, cost discipline, pricing, or capital delivery can create eight- or nine-figure value movement. Sanodea frames the mandate around exposed value, the real constraint, decision ownership, and recovery discipline.

Value at risk $10M-$100M+

Operational, commercial, capital, or strategic value that is being lost, delayed, normalised, or left unrealised.

Execution standard $100M-level

Boardroom discipline, clear ownership, measurable cadence, evidence-led decisions, and quantified value logic.

Operating focus 5 drivers

Throughput, availability, recovery, cost efficiency, and commercial leakage control.

Mandate output 90 days

Clear recovery priorities, accountable workstreams, decision cadence, and executive visibility over value movement.

Execution mandate

A private operating partner for leaders carrying $10M-$100M+ value risk.

Sanodea is built for situations too material for generic advice and too urgent for another strategy cycle. The work creates clarity fast, establishes the true constraint, and turns executive intent into operating movement.

Mandate 01

Find the real constraint

Separate visible symptoms from the few constraints holding $10M-$100M+ of value back.

Mandate 02

Create leadership clarity

Align owners, capital, systems, and commercial priorities around one measurable recovery agenda.

Mandate 03

Move at asset speed

Turn boardroom decisions into rhythm, accountability, and visible movement against the value at stake.

Mandate 04

Institutionalise discipline

Build the visibility and behaviours that protect recovered value and stop the same losses returning.

Value constraint to $10M-$100M+ recovery

Where $10M-$100M+ of value is lost, Sanodea finds the constraint.

Material value loss rarely comes from one visible failure. It hides inside fragmented execution, weak visibility, leadership misalignment, commercial leakage, and operational drift. Sanodea isolates the constraint and defines what must change in the next 30, 60, and 90 days.

01

Operational Performance

Identify throughput, reliability, cost, and governance losses before they compound into eight-figure leakage.

02

Strategic Transformation

Convert board-level intent into sequenced priorities that move capital, people, and systems toward measurable financial recovery.

03

Execution & Delivery

Stabilise complex programmes where schedule drift, weak cadence, and slow decisions can trap millions in unrealised value.

04

Commodities Value Recovery

Strengthen pricing, offtake, market structure, and commercial leakage control where margin loss moves quickly.

Diagnostic output quantified value-at-risk map Leadership output recovery mandate with accountable owners Execution output 90-day cadence and measurable recovery logic

Value drivers

The next $10M-$100M+ is usually hiding in five places.

Sanodea uses an executive-simple value lens to model where operational and commercial performance can unlock $10M-$100M+ recovery before deeper intervention begins.

Model Lost Value
01

Throughput improvement

Unlock trapped revenue by moving more saleable production through the same asset base without assuming new capital first.

02

Asset availability & uptime

Recover productive hours currently lost to downtime, reliability gaps, maintenance drift, and weak operating cadence.

03

Recovery / yield improvement

Capture more contained value from the same feed, grade, orebody, process stream, or industrial input base.

04

Operating cost efficiency

Release value by reducing unit-cost exposure across production, logistics, maintenance, energy, contractors, and consumables.

05

Commercial leakage / pricing discipline

Recover margin through stronger offtake, pricing, contract, route-to-market, and market-execution control.

Asset reality

$10M-$100M+ is recovered in the operating system, not in the slide deck.

Sanodea’s work starts where value is actually created and lost: production, availability, recovery, cost discipline, logistics, commercial execution, and the leadership cadence around those assets. This is why the engagement starts with operational reality and moves quickly toward the few constraints that can change the economics.

Top-down port operation with vessel, cranes, containers, and tug support
Commodity stockyard / port execution Inventory discipline, vessel timing, reclaiming flow, and commercial delivery control.
Top-down industrial processing complex with cooling towers, tanks, pipework, and utility systems
Industrial asset performance Reliability, energy intensity, decision visibility, and asset productivity.
Coal stockyard beside harbor infrastructure with reclaiming equipment and vessel access
Stockyard / logistics execution Stockpile control, conveyor flow, offtake readiness, and route-to-market discipline.
Close view of coal reclaiming equipment operating across a stockpile
Asset utilisation Reclaimer productivity, equipment availability, cycle time, and operating rhythm.
Top-down industrial cooling tower and surrounding process infrastructure
Operational intelligence Flow visibility, constraint signals, control points, and executive decision quality.
Top-down industrial campus and rooftop systems representing structured execution control
Execution control Plans, priorities, cadence, and field decisions connected to value recovery.

$100M-level execution standard

Boardroom authority only matters when it survives contact with the asset.

Sanodea connects executive decision-making to the realities that determine performance: people on the ground, equipment in motion, capital already committed, commercial exposure already live, and a leadership cadence that either protects value or lets it leak away. The work is designed to make the recovery mandate visible, owned, and executable.

Mining haul truck on an open-pit bench representing field-proven operating reality
Field-proven leadership Operational reality, executive discipline, and measurable recovery aligned in one mandate.
01

Translate board intent into field rhythm, decision rights, and operating ownership.

02

Connect operational, capital, commercial, and intelligence signals into one recovery view.

03

Focus executive attention on the few constraints capable of moving $10M-$100M+.

Executive intervention

Executive intervention when $10M-$100M+ of value is trapped inside the operating system.

Sanodea works where the mandate is large enough for board-level attention and practical enough to move into operating control: diagnose the constraint, create decision-quality intelligence, strengthen commercial execution, and brief leaders before another value cycle is lost.

Advisory
Large bucket-wheel excavator in an open-pit mine used to represent operational advisory intervention

Advisory

Diagnose the constraint behind lost value, structure the recovery mandate, and align leadership around priorities, owners, cadence, and the exploreEngageEVOLVE™ methodology.

For CEOs, boards, investors, and asset owners carrying eight-figure performance risk.
Intelligence
Top-down capital project with cranes and work zones used to represent decision intelligence and operational visibility

Intelligence

Deploy decision intelligence that shows where value is leaking before leadership commits more capital. The objective is sharper decisions through SanoStratIQ™, SanoMineIQ™, and targeted readiness diagnostics.

For leadership teams that need clearer signals before another eight figures of value is lost.
Commodities
Container terminal, vessels, cranes, and yard operations used to represent commodity value chain execution

Commodities

Improve market positioning, pricing discipline, offtake structure, and commercial execution where margin leakage becomes material quickly. SanoTradeIQ™ supports deal discipline where transaction workflow matters.

For commodity-linked businesses where every basis point can carry eight-figure value.
Speaking
Jean Marais in an executive office representing private boardroom briefings for asset-intensive leaders

Speaking & Briefings

Boardroom-level insight on Africa, mining, commodities, digital transformation, and value recovery. Briefings sharpen the decision agenda before capital, market, or operating moves.

For private briefings where leaders need commercial clarity, not motivational noise.
Engagement standard

Every mandate defines the economic prize, decision owners, cadence, first constraints, and evidence required to prove movement.

Leadership standard

For senior leaders who need clarity across boardroom, asset, market, and capital agendas.

Our Proprietary Execution Framework

exploreEngageEVOLVE™

explore the constraint. Engage execution. EVOLVE value.

Sanodea’s Execution Framework makes value loss visible, assigns ownership, and directs execution at the few constraints that can move cash, margin, production, capital control, or commercial outcome.

This is where inefficiencies are removed, capacity is recovered, and performance becomes visible in operating and financial results.

This framework is delivered through three integrated phases.

5-15% capacity recovery potential 20-40% decision velocity improvement $10M-$100M+ measurable recovery focus
explore™

Diagnose where value is being lost.

Diagnose where value is being lost across operations, systems, market position, cost exposure, commercial leakage, and leadership alignment.

Primary tools SanoStratIQ™ SanoMineIQ™ Digital Readiness Toolkit™
Engage™

Align leadership, priorities, and execution.

Align leadership, priorities, and execution around a focused recovery mandate with owners, governance rhythm, 90-day priorities, and board-level escalation logic.

Primary tools SanoStratIQ™ SanoTradeIQ™ Execution briefings
EVOLVE™

Execute and sustain value creation.

Execute measurable performance improvement and convert recovered value into management discipline.

Primary tools SanoMineIQ™ SanoTradeIQ™ Benchmark intelligence

Digital execution stack

From strategy readiness to intelligence, transformation, and commercial execution.

The stack turns fragmented evidence into decision control, recovery priorities, and governed execution across operations, capital, systems, and markets.

01

exploreEngageEVOLVE™

The methodology spine from diagnostic exploration to aligned execution and sustained performance discipline.

Controls visibility, constraint logic, cadence, and governance. Output board-ready recovery mandate.
02

SanoStratIQ™

Advisory intelligence for strategy readiness, risk exposure, operating model logic, and capital discipline.

Controls board agenda, options, value-at-risk logic, and readiness. Output 90-day leadership roadmap.
03

Digital Readiness Toolkit for African Mines™

Mining-specific readiness across data maturity, digital capability, process discipline, and ROI logic.

Controls maturity, technology fit, data integrity, and benefit traceability. Output practical transformation roadmap.
04

SanoMineIQ™

Decision intelligence for mining executives across safety, production, recovery, cost, maintenance, ESG, benchmarking, and risk visibility.

Controls performance signals, exceptions, drift, and decision velocity. Output live intelligence layer.
05

SanoTradeIQ™

Commodity execution infrastructure for verified participants, secure deal rooms, pricing discipline, offtake structure, documentation, workflow, and transaction control.

Controls leakage, counterparty trust, documents, margin, and route-to-market execution. Output stronger commercial control.
AssessValue baseline PlanRecovery mandate TransformExecution cadence AnalysePerformance intelligence TransactCommercial control

Operating arenas

Designed for environments where small drift becomes $10M-$100M+ of lost value.

Sanodea is built for asset-intensive markets where value moves through physical operations, capital discipline, market access, and leadership cadence. These environments punish slow decisions and reward clear operating control.

Mining & minerals

Unlock lost value across throughput, recovery, grade control, fleet productivity, maintenance discipline, contractor performance, stockpile logic, logistics, and commercial execution.

Board question: where is value leakage being accepted as normal variance?

Industrial operations

Recover value trapped in asset uptime, unit cost, energy intensity, maintenance work management, procurement leakage, reliability, process stability, and performance visibility.

Board question: which constraint is setting the performance ceiling?

Commodity value chains

Protect and recover margin through pricing discipline, offtake structure, counterparty control, document readiness, vessel timing, route-to-market decisions, and leakage governance.

Board question: where is margin being transferred away?

Capital programmes

Prevent capital drift from eroding value through delivery governance, sequencing, contractor control, benefits tracking, risk escalation, capital allocation discipline, and executive decision velocity.

Board question: is the programme still protecting the approved value case?

Insights

Structured insight for leaders who cannot afford another $10M-$100M+ in lost value.

These themes shape Sanodea’s executive briefings: how value disappears, how leaders regain visibility, and how disciplined execution converts insight into recovered margin.

Operational performance
Aggregate conveyor yard and material flow system representing operational performance and asset utilisation

Why $10M-$100M+ in lost value rarely looks like a crisis at first

Underperformance often appears as tolerable variance until throughput, uptime, cost, and commercial leakage compound into a board-level value gap.

Reader value: identify weak signals before they become accepted baseline. Discuss recovery
African execution
Open-pit mine landscape representing African mining execution and asset value recovery

The execution gap that traps value in African mining and commodities

Many assets have the resource, market, and capital logic to perform, but lose value through fragmented delivery, weak cadence, and unclear ownership.

Reader value: distinguish strategy weakness from execution-system failure. Discuss recovery
Decision intelligence
Top-down industrial plant geometry representing decision intelligence and operational visibility

From visibility to value: how leaders turn signals into recovered margin

Dashboards do not recover value by themselves. The advantage comes when intelligence changes decisions, priorities, and operating behaviour.

Reader value: convert data visibility into governed recovery action. Discuss recovery

MiningDoc thought leadership

Practical mining insight, written for operators, investors, and decision-makers.

Through MiningDoc, Sanodea contributes experience-driven perspective on the decisions that shape asset value across African and global mining environments: strategy, performance, readiness, deal structuring, governance, risk, digital integration, and execution discipline.

Investment readiness Operating discipline Digital transformation Governance & risk Deal structuring
Bucket-wheel mining machine cutting through a sand stockpile with conveyors and field equipment
Published perspective Insight that connects field reality, boardroom decisions, and capital outcomes. View MiningDoc Articles

FAQ

Clear answers for leaders with $10M-$100M+ at stake.

Boards, CEOs, group executives, asset owners, investors, and leadership teams operating in complex industrial, mining, and commodity-linked environments where $10M-$100M+ in value is being lost or left unrealised.

Sanodea identifies where $10M-$100M+ of value is being lost, aligns the leadership system around the real constraints, and supports execution that turns visibility into measurable recovery.

It is centred on operational reality, decision clarity, execution rhythm, and value recovery where delay can cost millions.

It starts with a focused diagnostic, moves into leadership alignment and execution design, then embeds the cadence, intelligence, and accountability required to protect the value recovered.

Sanodea can apply SanoStratIQ™, the Digital Readiness Toolkit for African Mines™, SanoMineIQ™, and SanoTradeIQ™ depending on whether the mandate is strategic, operational, digital, intelligence-led, or commercial.

Yes. Engagements can begin as executive advisory, diagnostic, or readiness work, then extend into dashboards, intelligence, benchmark outputs, deal rooms, or transaction workflows where the mandate requires it.

Data access is scoped around the mandate, governance, and confidentiality requirements of the client. The work is designed for executive decision support, not uncontrolled exposure of operational or commercial information.

No. It is an executive screening model for estimating value exposure across key drivers. A formal mandate would require deeper operational, financial, commercial, and data validation.

Clearer performance visibility, sharper priorities, aligned leadership action, reduced leakage, stronger delivery control, and a practical path to unlock and protect $10M-$100M+ in lost value.

Aerial port logistics yard with trucks, containers, vessels, and route-to-market movement
Execution mandate $10M-$100M+ recovery requires more than generic advisory.

Why engage Jean & Sanodea

When $10M-$100M+ is at stake, leadership needs execution authority.

Organisations engage Jean Marais and Sanodea when performance ambiguity has become too expensive to tolerate. The work is built to isolate the constraint, align the leadership system, and turn hidden operational or commercial leakage into a credible $10M-$100M+ recovery mandate with $100M-level commercial discipline. This is for organisations that need a trusted operating voice capable of standing between the boardroom, the asset, the market, and the capital agenda.

If the value at risk is measured in tens or hundreds of millions, the engagement cannot be cosmetic. It must create decision clarity, operating discipline, commercial control, and executive accountability around the few constraints that move enterprise value. Sanodea is brought in when leadership needs the courage to see the truth, the structure to act on it, and the cadence to keep value from leaking back into the system.

Engage Sanodea Visit Sanodea Group Connect on LinkedIn

Strategic engagement

Strategic Engagement Form

Engagement is structured, selective, and aligned to execution. Use this form to outline where $10M-$100M+ in value may be trapped, what decisions are currently unclear, and what level of intervention is required. The better the context, the faster the discussion can move from enquiry to mandate quality.

Strong enquiries usually include the asset or business context, value at risk, operating geography, current performance pressure, decision timeline, and whether the issue is operational, commercial, capital-related, digital, or strategic.

Board-level diagnostic Asset-intensive execution $10M-$100M+ recovery mandate
Best fit for: Boards, CEOs, investors, asset owners, group executives, and leadership teams ready to act on material value leakage.