JSE-listed Copper 360’s financial results for the year ended February 28 show that the company, which is transitioning from exploration to production, had a difficult year and that it needs to invest capital to scale production and bring additional projects online, CEO Graham Briggs says.

“Our near-term goals include reaching 40 000 t of ore a month (1% grade), translating to 5 000 t/y of copper, within 6 to 12 months. The company sees strong long-term potential but must focus on growth and on securing funding to execute its strategy,” he states in a June 30 report to shareholders.

For the financial year under review, Copper 360’s revenue from copper produced and sold increased by 349% year-on-year to R143.7-million, mainly as a result of the concentrate business, which started in March 2024 and contributed R97.6-million to revenue.

The company follows a multi-mine strategy, developing several smaller, flexible mines feeding into central processing plants.

The concentrate business was launched with modular flotation plant 2 (MFP2) at Nama Copper in March 2024, producing copper concentrate, with the first dispatch made at the end of April 2024.

Additional crushing equipment was acquired in April and July 2024, which provided greater capacity, redundancy and flexibility.

Revenue for the period, was, however, lower than expected and forecast, mainly owing to the cathode business’s solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW) plant not operating for the full financial year; a delay in the start of mining operations at Rietberg; a delay in the capitalisation of Rietberg mine (fleet and infrastructure); and prolonged tramming of broken rock and transitional ore at lower and inconsistent grades that also resulted in lower recoveries at the processing plant.

Mining activities started at Rietberg in August 2024, contributing sulphide ore from broken rock to MFP2.

Ore development started with the first on-ore rock blast at the end of January.

The cathode business’s SX-EW plant was put into a care-and-maintenance programme during the second half of the financial year, requiring further expansion capital expenditure (capex) to operate at sustainable profit levels.

Operating costs increased by 177% to R399.4-million from R144.1-million in the prior financial year, owing to the additional costs associated with the concentrate business and mining unit introduced this year.

Copper 360 posted a 244% year-on-year widening in its loss for the year to R223.1-million as a result of the lower revenue and higher costs.

Capex of R187.4-million was incurred during the financial year.

A further R256-million in capex is planned for 2026 and will be spent on the completion of the MFP1 at Nababeep and the completion of capitalisation at Rietberg for additional infrastructure and underground trackless mobile machine fleet.