Copper 360 is the only producer of copper cathode in the area and South Africa’s only listed pure copper producer. Picture: Supplied
By Tawanda Karombo
JSE-LISTED Copper 360’s share price surged 19.2% to R3.10 per share after it achieved landmark production of the commodity in the Northern Cape, producing 136 tonnes of concentrate over a period of three weeks.
The AltX listed firm reported first copper production from Nababeep, in the Northern Cape, a day after it said there were suspicious trade transactions in its shares.
It has asked the Financial Sector Conduct Authority to investigate the “unusual and uncommercial trades” in its shares, which had resulted in a drop in its share price.
However, the share price soared on Wednesday after Copper 360 reported the remarkable achievement that saw it record concentrate grades in excess of 30% during commissioning of the Nama Copper plant that it recently acquired.
Copper 360 is also the only producer of copper cathode from the area and South Africa’s only listed pure copper producer.
Copper 360 CEO Jan Nelson said they delivered on plan and at copper concentrate grades that are world-class, making history in terms of being the first major copper producer in the Namaqualand region.
“We salute the tenacity and spirit of the people of Namaqualand who support us tremendously and the drive and passion of our team. We remain humble but we celebrate this historic success which marks South Africa’s return to being a major copper player,” Nelson said.
“Our focus is now to bring our second concentrate plant into production and ramp up copper output. We look forward to reporting further production results in due course.”
The plant is now forecast to produce in excess of 1,000 tonnes of concentrate per month within three months.
This will be two months ahead of planned production.
Copper 360 plans to start production from the second concentrate plant at the end of July 2024, with a target capacity of 1,400 concentrate tonnes per month.
The company’s other plant that produces copper cathode, also delivered record performance in March 2024 after output topped 60 tonnes of pure copper metal.
This plant “is well on track to ramp up to 100 tonnes of copper per month within the next quarter,” the company reported.
“Our focus is now to bring our second concentrate plant into production and ramp up copper output,” added Nelson.
– BUSINESS REPORT