WEIR Group has promoted the long serving head of its minerals business in Latin America to lead the whole division.

Ricardo Garib will succeed Dean Jenkins who is moving to the newly created position of chief operating officer of the engineering company.

Mr Garib has run Weir’s minerals operation in Latin America since 2001 having previously led its business in Chile.

The minerals arm in south and central America has sites in Chile, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico.

Across the world it has operations in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

It is Weir’s largest division by revenue and booked £522 million in the first six months of this year.

Mr Jenkins, an Australian who has also worked for airline Qantas and infrastructure business UGL, has been in charge of the minerals division since 2012.

He originally joined Weir in January 2011 as managing director of its power and industrial arm.

Weir saw underlying pre-tax profit drop from £181.8 million to £108.2m for the first six months of this year mainly as a result of the slowdown in oil and gas market, particularly in North America.

The company has embarked on a major cost saving drive but said it is still in the market to make acquisitions.