This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist. Emerging copper producer Copper 360 has shipped copper concentrate from South Africa's Northern Cape province for the first time in 21 years. South Africa's only listed pure copper producer, which delivered record concentrate grades during plant commissioning, is performing way ahead of expectation as a producer of copper concentrate, as well as being the Northern Cape's only producer of copper cathode. "We salute the tenacity and spirit of the people of Namaqualand who support us tremendously and the drive and passion of our team," said Copper 360 CEO Jan Nelson, who spoke to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) The company is building up from a very low base to one that will be generating over R100-million in monthly revenue. Nama Copper, the first concentrate plant of this Johannesburg Stock Exchange's AltX-listed company, has generated a profit within six weeks. The second concentrate plant, the MPF 1 plant, is on track to come on line in two months. Two months ago, Copper 360's solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX/EW ) broke even. Meanwhile, achieving 30%-plus grade during commissioning is regarded as remarkable during the five weeks of commissioning, when 70 t of concentrate was the outcome - 76% more than the targeted 40 t. Based on this performance, the plant is forecast to produce more than 1 000 t of concentrate a month within three months, two months ahead of planned production. The target capacity of the second concentrate plant, which is due to start production at the end of July, is 1 400 concentrate tonnes a month. In addition, the copper-cathode producing SX/EW, which delivered a record performance in March by producing 60 t of pure copper metal, is on track to ramp up to 100 t of copper a month within the next quarter. Mining Weekly: Could this be the far-reaching start of a crucial new copper era for South Africa's Northern Cape, which is so prospective for base metals so crucial to a world that is electrifying at a fast pace? Nelson: Absolutely. This was one of the biggest copper districts during the 1940s to the 1980s. You had Newmont and Gold Fields mining here. There were shafts sunk 2 000 m deep and a lot of these mines are still open with large orebodies. I certainly think that with this production initiating, this area will definitely be the revival of South Africa as a major copper player. Is Copper 360's 30%-plus concentrate grade delivery likely to be sustained? Absolutely. Our test work showed initially that the copper concentrate grades were between 40% and 50%, which is extremely high. On average, companies produce at about 24%. For us to achieve 30% concentrate grades during commissioning is phenomenal because you have quite a lot of problems during commissioning. You don't have consistent feed, your plant is still building up. To have that from the get-go is just fantastic and shows us that 40% to 50% in the future will be easily achievable. How did Copper 360 manage to exceed its planned copper concentrate production target by a whopping 76%. Buying a plant that was ready to go obviously played a big role, but it's also due to the fantastic team that we have on the ground. Our people have really put in a considerable effort. We've appointed a new plant manager, as announced, and we have a new operation manager in place, but it's just exceptional teamwork that pulled out all the stops. What are the new expectations, now, for your recently acquired Nama Copper plant, in view of the way it has been able to streak ahead of targeted performance? Over the next three months, it will build up to about 1 000 concentrate tonnes. It's going to produce close to 350 t of copper metal, and we'll generate something close to about R50-million to R60-million in revenue. Not only will that plant pay itself back in four months, but the production ramp up is not a problem because we've