Biography: Mining

Morné van der Merwe is a director in Dewey & LeBoeuf's commercial department. He currently heads the firm's Johannesburg mining, energy and natural resources practice.

His practice is strongly focused on the mining sector, which is highly regulated in South Africa. He specialises in mergers and acquisitions; management buy-outs; privatisations; corporate restructurings; black economic empowerment transactions; African trade and projects; corporate matters; due diligence investigations; international transactions; and mining law.

Morné's experience covers a variety of complex transactions for high profile clients. Examples include representing: Xstrata in its acquisition of Eland Platinum Group Limited and in all of its BEE transactions (including that with African Rainbow Minerals); Aquarius in developing the first South African pooling and sharing agreement with Anglo Platinum and in its acquisition of Impala's interest in the Aquarius Group; and ArcelorMittal in its restructuring (valued at over £4 billion) and BEE deal (valued at almost £1 billion).

He has been recognised in several well-respected international legal rankings and has been named as a leading lawyer in corporate and M&A by Best Lawyers International; in corporate/M&A by Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business; and in M&A by IFLR1000: The Guide to the World's Leading Financial Law Firms. He is also recommended in corporate/M&A by the Legal500 and PLC Which Lawyer.

Morne holds a BA LLB degree from the University of Stellenbosch.