About Sandfire
Sandfire Resources NL became Australia’s newest copper-gold producer in February 2012 following the commencement of mining at the Company’s flagship DeGrussa Copper-Gold Project.
The DeGrussa Project is located within Sandfire’s 100%-owned Doolgunna Project, a 400km2 tenement package in Western Australia’s emerging Bryah Basin mineral province, approximately 900km north-east of Perth and 150km north of the regional mining hub of Meekatharra.
The DeGrussa Project is one of Australia’s fastest moving mine developments - less than three years after drilling the first discovery hole in April 2009, Sandfire has completed definitive feasibility studies, obtained financing for the A$384M mine development, and mined its first Direct Shipping chalcocite ore and underground ore in February 2012.
The Project is being developed as an open pit and underground mine, and is set to become Western Australia’s biggest copper mine with total resources of 652,000t of contained copper and 742,000oz of gold.
Based on the June 2011 Definitive Feasibility Study, the DeGrussa Project will deliver average annual concentrate production of 300,000tpa grading 27% Cu (FY 2013-2015) and 220,000tpa grading 27% Cu (FY 2016 onwards), generating total payable copper production (LOM) of 480,000t and total payable gold production of 270,000 ounces.
Construction remains on schedule and within budget, and is on track to be completed by Q3 of 2012 - paving the way for Sandfire’s transition to become a leading mid-tier Australian copper-gold producer.
The DeGrussa Project has a current mine life of 7+ years, based on the four lenses of high-grade VMS copper-gold mineralisation discovered to date, however the broader Doolgunna Project offers outstanding potential to discover additional lenses of mineralisation and further clusters of VMS deposits within a prospective 22km long strike length of the prospective Narracoota Volcanics.
Sandfire has an aggressive exploration commitment with a $20 million annual exploration budget – a significant portion of which is allocated towards copper-gold exploration at DeGrussa, with the balance spread across the Company’s portfolio of copper, lead-zinc, uranium, iron ore and manganese exploration projects in Western Australia and the Northern Territory
Sandfire also holds a cornerstone 17.1 per cent stake in junior explorer White Star Resources (ASX: WSR), which is exploring and developing a portfolio of copper-gold and gold projects in northern Chile, South America.