UPDATE 2-Banker Dalman appointed chairman at miner ENRC

* Dalman replaces veteran Sittard

* Sittard to leave with immediate effect

By Clara Ferreira-Marques

LONDON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Kazakh miner ENRC appointed investment banker Mehmet Dalman as its chairman on Friday, replacing industry veteran Johannes Sittard, who has been expected to step down since a governance review last September.

The London-listed miner was hit by a corporate governance storm last year, when the controversial 2010 purchase of an expropriated Congolese asset was followed months later by a boardroom spat that pitted the founding shareholders against some key directors.

The miner carried out a three-month governance review following the board row. That kept both its chief executive and its chairman, Sittard, in place, although Sittard has since been expected to step down over the divisions.

Dalman, who was previously senior independent director, will take the top job with immediate effect.

"Dr Sittard felt this was a good time to move on. He felt the review had taken place, the board has improved, one of the biggest outstanding issues has been dealt with and our share price is having a reasonable rebound," Dalman told Reuters.

ENRC is widely seen to have turned a corner earlier this year, when it settled a long-running legal dispute with rival First Quantum over expropriated copper assets in the Democratic Republic of Congo, paving the way for it to begin work at the operations.

"The firm is in good shape. We wanted continuity and I represented that continuity -- it is almost business as usual," Dalman said.

Unlike German-born Sittard -- a former academic who came to ENRC over a decade ago from the steelmaker Ispat, now part of ArcelorMittal -- former footballer Dalman's background is in banking. The former head of Commerzbank's investment banking arm, Dalman left his executive role at hedge fund firm Toscafund earlier this month to focus on other roles, including ENRC.

"It is slightly negative, in that (Sittard) was the guy who put it all together. It is a bit of a loss in that regard," Cailey Barker, analyst at Numis in London said.

"But it shouldn't come as a surprise to most people, given he (Sittard) was moving away from the business."

Sittard was at the helm of ENRC through a period of transformational growth, from a bundle of assets acquired during the post-Soviet privatisations in the 1990s into a ferro alloy business that has aggressively expanded, diversified and now stretches from Brazil to Congo, Zambia and Mozambique.

Dalman said it was too soon to say whether an additional director would be appointed to the board and who would be appointed to replace him as senior independent director.

ENRC is due to report its full-year results next month.