OPERATIONS •
COPPER 360 , POWERING UP FOR THE FUTURE !
By Sharyn Macnamara
Using the abundant solar and wind resources in the Northern Cape , together with its unique business philosophy , Copper 360 is powering up for mega growth in 2024 .
Join African Mining in conversation with Jan Nelson , CEO of Copper 360 , South Africa ’ s only listed copper producer . We met in September last year to discuss developments at the company since its listing on the Alt X of the JSE on 21 April 2023 . Our focus was to drill down to the detail around Nelson ’ s announcement at the Junior Mining Indaba in June of last year that the company will develop an alternative power plan to be implemented in 2024 and will within five years make Copper 360 ’ s operations independent of Eskom .
There have been amazing developments at the company over the past year and this is directly linked to Copper 360 ’ s differentiating business philosophy of being the ‘ first mover ’ in low-cost capital projects with high margins and high returns , characterised by simplicity and reliability . The company ’ s custom mining model – with in-house engineering capability to plan and design operations – is run on a private bond basis , and then – when successful – is scaled up . This seems to be a model favoured by Copper 360 ’ s local investors .
The company believes that its strategic advantage lies in the fact that it is one of the only copper producers in South Africa currently – and this , in light of the demand for the commodity which speaks for itself with global copper intensive renewable energy requirements and the fact that in the next 22 years , the world must mine as much copper as it has since Babylonian times .
Furthermore , the company ’ s resource is a pre-developed highgrade resource with useful historical data supplied by Copper 360 ’ s mining predecessors , Newmont and Goldfields , in what was once one of the world ’ s major copper districts .
The company ’ s mining right covers almost 90 000 hectares on which there are 12 mines and 60 prospects . The mine model is built with flexibility in mind with all of these sources of ore feeding into a central plug-and-play processing facility at Nababeeb – and this is what makes the company ’ s operations extremely cost effective . At the time of writing , the company was producing copper plates ( copper cathode production ) at its SX / EW from surface rock sources in the area , while its underground Rietberg Mine was planned to start feeding a concentrate plant in construction at the time by November of 2023 .
The company ’ s condensed consolidated financial results for the six months period ended 31 August 2023 have shown that it is enroute to astronomical growth ( See an excerpt below .) 1
Supplied by Copper 360
Jan Nelson , CEO of Copper 360 , South Africa ’ s only listed copper producer .
The focus of our conversation in September 2023 was on the company ’ s moves to power its future expansion with a mixed blend of solutions .
Sharyn Macnamara ( SM ): When did Copper 360 decide to take steps to power up for the future ? Jan Nelson , CEO of Copper 360 ( JN ): When we listed in April , we had planned our operations around Eskom ’ s predicted stage four load shedding . However , in the first half of the year , our SX / EW plant experienced stage eight load shedding , leading to down time for 10 – 12 hours a day , which cut down our existing availability for milling to 65 %. Apart from the negative impact on production , we lost a mill and two generators – not to mention the fact that the moment we lost power the copper would fall off the plates and the pipes would block up causing major disruptions . We realised that we had not planned adequately and with our second , bigger operation due to come online in November , and significant growth planned for the future , we decided to gear up with an improved power solution .
The single , biggest risk to our business is power . We have therefore , over the past six months , been working towards energy security with an integrated energy solution in mind .
SM : What will this new power plan entail ? JN : We are taking a phased approach – having learned from others and specialist consultants in the field . The consensus is that there is no one ‘ silver bullet ’ for energy supply . A combination of sources will offer the most practical and reliable approach . We will therefore
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