BHP Group said on Wednesday that David Lamont, a former mining executive who has more recently been at global biotech firm CSL, would take the reins as company's chief financial officer from the start of December.

Lamont, who worked closely with BHP Chief Executive Mike Henry in BHP's coal division in the early 2000s, has been CFO at Australia's second-biggest listed company since January 2016.

He will also join BHP's executive leadership team, Henry said in a statement.

Prior to joining CSL, Lamont was the CFO and an executive director at MMG Ltd, the Australia-listed arm of China's MinMetals, from 2010, over the period it bought for $5.85 billion (£4.6 billion) the giant Las Bambas copper mine in Peru from Glencore-Xstrata.

During his time at MMG, Lamont managed the relationship with China's Minmetals "very well" and better than his successors, said a mining industry source. "He's a good operator; very disciplined, very focused," the source said.

Lamont previously served as CFO for several other multinational public companies across a range of industries, including Australian mid-tier copper miner OZ Minerals, and chemicals maker Incitec Pivot Ltd.

He also held senior roles at BHP between 2001 and 2006, including being CFO of the company's carbon steel materials, thermal coal businesses, overlapping with Henry's time in coal where they knew each other well.

Lamont began his career as an accountant at Deloitte.

Current BHP CFO Peter Beaven will step down on Nov. 30, but will remain in a support role until early 2021 after which he will leave the firm to pursue personal ambitions, BHP said.

Beaven, a South African who joined BHP in 2003, lost the contest for BHP's top job to Mike Henry last year and was expected to leave the firm. He had spent a decade in operational roles in South Africa and Chile, before becoming CFO in October 2014.

(Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Stephen Coates)