Johannesburg - South African mining deal maker Brian Gilbertson was paid R375 million for his role in the formation of the world's largest aluminium producer, United Company Rusal of Russia.
The Times of London reported that Gilbertson was paid $50 million (R375 million) by Siberian Ural Aluminium (Sual) shareholders for completing the merger of the aluminium and alumina assets of Sual, the company of which he is president, Glencore and Russian Aluminium (Rusal).
Sual's spokesperson in Moscow, Alexey Prokhorov, was not available to comment.
Gilbertson formerly headed mining giant Gencor before listing the company's mainly base metal and coal assets in London in the form of Billiton in July 1997. Gencor was the first South African company to transfer its listing offshore after 1994.
In June 2001 Gilbertson played a key role in the formation of BHP Billiton, which was formed from Billiton and Australia's Broken Hill Proprietary, or BHP.
In July 2002 Gilbertson succeeded Paul Anderson as BHP Billiton chief executive, but in early January 2003 he left the company due to "irreconcilable differences" with the board.
Then in May 2003, he agreed to a settlement with BHP Billiton of £4.1 million (R57 million at yesterday's rates).
For more than 32 years he worked for BHP Billiton and its predecessor companies. BHP Billiton pays the 63-year-old Gilbertson a pension of £602 575 a year.
He will be the non-executive chairman of the new Rusal, which is set to list on the London Stock Exchange in 18 months.
Following his ousting from BHP Billiton, Gilbertson was hired by Indian metals group Vedanta Resources as the chairman, for which he was paid a fee of £350 000 a year.
He was also allocated 938 128 Vedanta Resources shares at the time of Vedanta's listing in March 2004, which was worth £3.6 million at the time.
Locally Gilbertson has worked as a consultant to Lonmin, the world's third-largest platinum mining company, and served as the chairman of Incwala Resources, Lonmin's empowerment vehicle, from September 2003 to March this year.
Incwala Resources has not disclosed what Gilbertson was paid as a consultant and chairman.
Gilbertson has a bachelor of science degree, majoring in mathematics and physics, from Rhodes University, as well as a master's degree in physics from the same university.