COPPER 360 has drafted in gold industry veteran and former Minerals Council vice-president Graham Briggs as its new CEO following a period of leadership turnover.
In October last year, the Northern Cape miner appointed a new CFO and then on December shareholder Shirley Hayes replaced Jan Nelson as CEO, the latter becoming director of the firm’s “resource strategy and equity value”.
Hayes will now revert to a non-executive role on Copper 360’s board.
Copper 360 has been under pressure after missing production targets last year. It previously forecast a jump in output for the year ended-February to 8,000 tons from 1,500t previously. Copper 360 planned to post its year-end financial numbers this month.
Copper 360 expected to hit steady state production target at 40,000 tons in copper concentrate a month this year and to double production in the next two, according to a report by Business Times in April.
The pressure on the company was thrown into stark relief in April when it R267.6m in short term debt was restructured (with interest linked to floating LME copper prices). In addition, lenders agreed to extend and convert the debt to convertible bonds. Of the R267.6m, some R172.3m fell due in April, R15m on July 31 and R80.3m on February 28.
Briggs, whose appointment is effective June 1, who was CEO of Harmony Gold from 2009 to 2015, has “a wealth of experience and strategic expertise”, said Copper 360. In addition, to Copper 360 he is non-executive chair of Salamander Magnesium.
Briggs said Copper 360 had “a vast inventory of copper in the ground and proven processing capability that is scalable”.
Shares in Copper 360 gained nearly 4% in Johannesburg on Thursday but on a 12 month basis the stock is down about 56%, despite a rising copper price.
