Shirley Hayes

SHIRLEY Hayes took over as CEO of Copper 360 “with immediate effect” late in December, replacing her business partner Jan Nelson, who has been moved to “executive director of resource strategy and equity value”. The reason given for this shift was “the implementation of the transition to producing status ensuring integrated collaboration and disciplined execution and risk management” as the company’s focus changes to “disciplined execution of its strategic plan for copper production”.  

Make of that verbiage what you will but such sudden management changes usually indicate problems, of which Copper 360’s poor interim numbers may have been a harbinger. Hayes is the controlling shareholder, holding 58% of the equity in Copper 360 so she has a lot at stake in ensuring delivery of what was promised. This is make or break time for Copper 360, which has promised a huge jump in copper production for the year to end-February 2025 – to 8,000 tons from 1,500t previously – along with a dividend payment. There was no sign of that happening at the interim stage. 

Copper 360 was created through the merger of mining rights including 12 former copper mines controlled by Hayes with a copper recovery plant on the former Nababeep mine controlled by Nelson. The first of the proposed underground mines, Rietberg, is about to start underground mining operations. The strategy is to open up the others through a cluster mining model that is to be “driven” by Nelson while Hayes focuses on “disciplined execution, operational excellence and prudent financial management”.