Highlights
- Copper 360 has delivered the first copper concentrate from the Northern Cape Province in 21 years marking the start of a new era in copper production in South Africa.
- The achievement is remarkable in light of the fact that the record concentrate grades in excess of 30% were produced during the commissioning of the MFP 2 (the Nama Copper plant) that was recently acquired.
- The plant produced 136 tonnes of concentrate over a commissioning period of 3 weeks achieving our plan.
- The plant is forecast to produce in excess of 1,000 tonnes of concentrate per month within 3 months – 2 months ahead of planned production.
- The Company’s second concentrate plant MFP 1 is planned to start production at the end of July 2024, with a target capacity of 1,400 concentrate tonnes per month.
- The SX/EW plant that produces copper cathode, also delivered record performance in March 2024 producing some 60 tonnes of pure copper metal and is well on track to ramp up to 100 tonnes of copper per month within the next quarter.
Jan Nelson, CEO of Copper 360 commented: “Copper 360 is extremely proud of this achievement heralding not only the first copper concentrate production from the area in 21 years but also because it marks the start of a new era of copper production in South Africa. We have delivered on plan and at copper concentrate grades that are world-class. Copper 360 is also the only producer of copper cathode from the area.
Copper 360 is South Africa’s only listed pure copper producer and has made 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. 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.”
Any forward-looking statements contained in this announcement have not been reviewed nor reported on by the Company’s auditors.
