THE scale of former Harmony Gold CEO Graham Briggs’s job at Copper 360 will become apparent when the junior miner publishes its year-end numbers (to February 28). A trading statement last week made for ominous reading, however.
The Northern Cape copper miner warned shareholders losses would be more than 100% worse than last year. That is a significant number because Copper 360 reported a R129m operating loss for the 12 months ended February 2024.
The key issue then was a lack of volumes owing to loadshedding, a “critical” mill failure and the impact of having “inadequate crushing capacity”.
At the time we reported it was a make-or-break moment for Copper 360. The acceleration of mining at Rietberg, an underground operation, was identified by then CEO Jan Nelson as a key solution. That was a month before those poor 2024 full year results came out.
However, the first on-ore blast at Rietberg only took place on January 31 this year – an important moment for the company but surely far behind schedule.
“Although expenses were contained within budgeted parameters, planned revenue was not realised, mainly due to construction and consequent production delays, which resulted in operating losses,” said the company in its trading statement.
Briggs was unveiled as Copper 360’s new CEO on May 21 and officially started work yesterday (June 1). He replaces Shirley Hayes who will resume her nonexecutive duties on Copper 360’s board. Nelson is the firm’s director of “resource strategy and equity value”.
Without cash flow, the company has been unable to service its debt as originally planned. In April, Copper 360 said it had restructured R276.6m of short-term debt into long-term debt while also cutting the interest rate it is paying by more than 50%.
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.
Copper 360 has forecast steady state production of 40,000 tons in copper concentrate a month this year and that it would double production in the next two years. But can it?
Briggs, a highly experienced campaigner who worked at some of the gold industry’s toughest assets (and in a much less helpful gold market than now) must be relishing the challenge. But the company needs him to work some magic, and quick.
