The South Shaft was placed on care and maintenance in 1994. Deon headed up the team that reopened South Shaft in 1997 and ramped up gold production to produce circa 120kg per month within 12 months. 

The DRDGold NW Operations was shut and placed into Provisional Liquidation in April 2005. Deon was appointed MD of Simmer & Jack that acquired the operations from the liquidator in 2006 and resumed operations employing 8500 employees and producing circa 350-400kg of gold per month. I was appointed Chief Operations Officer of Simmer & Jack in April 2005 and through the successful acquisition and restart of the liquidated Northwest Operations (Combined Buffelsfontein & Hartebeesfontein Operations) the SIM share price increased by +375% between 2005 to 2006. The SIM share was voted the top resource stock on the JSE for 2006 and 2007

As Underground Manager  Deon was tasked to unwind operations at 5 Shaft in 1992 but after restructuring and optimisation of the 5 Shaft operations, turned it into a profitable business producing circa 250kg per month.

Deon was appointed General Manager of the loss making Mine in January 2000. After intensive restructuring and optimisation the Blyvooruitzicht Mine produced circa 600kg per month, won the Chamber of Mines safest mine award in the area for 4 years in a row and rated in the top 3 lowest Cash Cost per kg gold producers in South Africa. In 2003 the DRD share peaked at R38 and the DRD share became commonly known as the DRD Rocket in the USA investment community.

Deon was appointed advisor to the head of operations of AngloGold Ashanti South African Operations in 2012 and developed a restructuring proposal for the entire AGA SA operations which was successfully implemented in 2014. 

Deon was appointed CEO of the CSA Mine in October 2013 and embarked on a restructuring and optimisation program which resulted in the turnaround of the loss making operation to a 1^st Quartile C1 Cost Operation in Australia and doubled the Project’s Resource through a comprehensive exploration program. In 2025 Harmony acquired the CSA Mine for a consideration of 1 Billion US Dollars.