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Picture: 123RF/CITADELLE
Picture: 123RF/CITADELLE

Copper 360, which recently delivered the first copper concentrate from the Northern Cape in 21 years, has appointed Shirley Hayes as executive chair with immediate effect.

She was previously non-executive chair.

The company said in a statement the change came as the commissioning of two plants at Copper 360’s mining operations would demand significant focus from the incumbent executive team.

“Shirley has been mandated by the board to oversee the capital requirements for the Rietberg mine and the concomitant move into production at the works,” it said.

On April 24, the group made history by being the first major copper producer in the Namaqualand region.

“We remain humble, but we celebrate this historic success, which marks SA’s return to being a major copper player,” CEO Jan Nelson said at the time.

The group said record concentrate grades in excess of 30% were produced during the commissioning of the MFP 2 — the Nama Copper plant — which was acquired in November 2023 from Mazule Resources for R200m. 

The acquisition allows the company to more than double its production capacity and output from 3,899 tonnes to 7,975 tonnes per year by 2025.

Copper 360’s second concentrate plant, MFP 1, is planned to start production at the end of July, with a target capacity of 1,400 concentrate tonnes per month.

In March, the group concluded a new offtake agreement for copper from the Nama Copper plant.

The deal, concluded with Fujax UK, an international commodity trading company, is for all concentrate produced by the plant for 10 years.

On March 27, Copper 360 announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Far West Gold Recoveries (Far West), a subsidiary of DRD Gold, to determine the economic viability of copper dumps, which could lead to a joint venture between the companies.

The 12-month MOU will allow Far West to conduct due diligence on Copper 360’s O’okiep, Carolusberg, and Lower and Upper NamaCopper tailings dams. 

Copper 360’s shares were up 3.3% at R4.65 in early trade on the JSE.

MackenzieJ@arena.africa

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