Stuart McKinnonThe West Australian Work on the Monty underground mine is ahead of schedule.
Sandfire Resources has squeezed another nine months of mine life out of its flagship DeGrussa operation as it continues a relentless search for more ore bodies in the Doolgunna region north of Meekatharra.
The Karl Simich-led copper miner announced yesterday it had added another 1.3 million tonnes grading 3.5 per cent for 46,000t of copper to its ore reserves, extending DeGrussa’s mine life to early calendar 2022.
The extension buys the company more time to find another so-called volcanogenic massive sulphide ore deposit in the vicinity to feed its $400 million DeGrussa project and its 1.5 million tonnes a year concentrator.
Speaking after the release of Sandfire’s March quarter report yesterday, Mr Simich revealed the company had drilled about 103,000m in the past two quarters as part of an aggressive search for new deposits.
The company has also expanded its footprint at Doolgunna to more than 6000sqkm via a series of exploration farm-in agreements with smaller neighbours, most recently one with Auris Minerals. Mr Simich said he believed the Auris deal meant Sandfire had tied up the best prospective corridor in the area.
“We are of the view that there are more VMS deposits in the area but we don’t know the scale,” he said.
“There’s a long way to go but we’ve put ourselves in the best possible position.”
However, Mr Simich noted the company had other opportunities to potentially extend DeGrussa’s mine life with further exploration at depth beneath the known Monty ore body as well as the 8Mt inventory at its Thaduna-Green Dragon project 40km to the east.
The company expects to begin blending ore from its satellite Monty project before the end of the year with work on the underground mine ahead of schedule.
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