Christo was born on 18 November 1963 in Vereeniging and matriculated in 1981.
He obtained his Dip Tech (T5) in Metallurgical Engineering from the Vaal Triangle Technikon. He worked at Iscor Vanderbijlpark in Blast Furnaces Production for a year, then moved to Iscor Research and Development in Pretoria, where he worked in the Process Metallurgy Department for four years. His area of focus was iron manufacturing, with particular interest in the evaluation and characterization of iron ore, coal, and coke for the blast furnace, direct reduction, and the newly developed Corex-process.
During 1992, Christo accepted a position with Richards Bay Minerals (RBM), the heavy minerals sands operation then jointly owned by Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. He started in the Development Metallurgy Section, where his responsibilities included flow sheet development, process optimization, and evaluating new technologies.
He gained valuable metallurgical and production experience over the next 14 years at various RBM plants including the roaster, char plant, iron processing, slag processing, and the smelter. His metallurgical responsibilities included increasing prime grade slag and pig iron production, furnace rebuilds, working in conjunction with the marketing department to establish new markets and customers, and the introduction of best practises in the process metallurgical field.
His human resources responsibilities included the management, training, and development of metallurgists. He completed his MDP through the University of Durban Westville during 1997.
Christo obtained valuable experience with regard to business restructuring (’right-sizing’) while in the position of team leader responsible for the SHEQ and technical departments.
He joined Spectrum Technical (Pty) Ltd in 2006 as a director and shareholder; his current position. Services to clients includes plant feasibility studies, flow sheet design, process equipment selection and supply, pilot-scale test work, plant commissioning, troubleshooting, and cost analyses in the metals and minerals industry.
Christo is married to Marietjie, and has two boys – Francois and Christo Jnr. He is also a keen jogger.