Africa-Press – South-Africa. South African miner Copper 360 announced that its CEO and commercial executive have taken a leave of absence, effective immediately.
After market close on Friday, 6 February, Copper 360 informed shareholders that CEO Graham Briggs and commercial executive Stephan du Plessis have taken a leave of absence with immediate effect.
The company said this forms part of an ongoing re-organisation following its recapitalisation, which was announced in September 2025.
Copper 360 explained that its board has implemented “appropriate interim management arrangements”.
COO Gordon Thompson has been appointed transitional CEO, and chief risk officer Seten Naidoo is set to take on the role of transitional commercial executive.
The company’s board further reassured shareholders that its operations will continue as normal and that there has been no disruption to day-to-day mining, processing or commercial activities.
In addition, it said Copper 360 “remains focused on operational delivery, financial discipline and value creation for shareholders”.
“The board will continue to assess the company’s organisational structure and executive capacity as part of the broader re-organisation process and will keep shareholders informed of any further material changes,” it said.
Copper 360 did not provide any further details on Briggs and Du Plessis’ leave of absence.
Briggs, a South African geologist and mining executive, has only been the CEO of Copper 360 for about seven months, having taken over from Shirley Hayes in June 2025.
Prior to joining Copper 360, Briggs served as the CEO of Harmony Gold from 2008 to 2015, where he led one of South Africa’s largest gold producers.
His career began at Gencor in 1972, and he has also served as Vice Chairman of the Minerals Council South Africa.
Briggs left retirement to become the CEO of Copper 360, having retired after leaving Harmony Gold in 2015.
Du Plessis, a chartered accountant, previously served as the head of Mergers and Acquisitions for Deutsche Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch in South Africa.
He had been with Copper 360 since March 2021, when he served as its CFO, before making the switch to commercial director in October 2024.
Rocky road
Copper 360
Copper 360 has had a rocky road since listing on the JSE, with repeated losses and delays in its results, as well as leadership instability.
The company was listed on the JSE in 2023 as the only South African primary producer of copper through environmental clean-up.
The company identified copper deposits in the Springbok area of the Northern Cape at mines abandoned by other large copper producers.
Copper 360 stated that most of the copper ore deposits on its fields had been pre-developed by previous mining companies before the 1994 copper price slump.
Since listing, the company has yet to report a sustained profit from its operations.
In September 2025, under Briggs’ leadership, Copper 360 announced that it is undertaking a R1.5 billion recapitalisation, more than double its market cap on the JSE at the time.
This, the company explained, was to raise funding and reduce its debt burden. This rights offer formed part of a broader company restructuring aimed at raising sufficient funding for short- and medium-term growth.
The rights offer comprised new equity of R400 million and up to R750 million from a debt conversion.
The R1.15 billion of new ordinary shares was offered to existing shareholders through a combined claw-back offer and rights offer.
In December 2025, the company announced that 63.3% of the rights offer had been subscribed for and that the full R400 million equity capital raise had been achieved.
“We are delighted to have raised the targeted growth capital required to create sustainable processing capacity and complete the associated mine development,” Briggs said when this was announced.
The company’s share price is down over 50% in the past year and down nearly 80% since listing. However, in the year-to-date, its share price has jumped by 20%.
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