Diggers and Dealers: Sandfire keeps the faith with DeGrussa...

Diggers and Dealers: Sandfire keeps the faith with DeGrussa drilling

Peter Klinger - The West Australian on August 1, 2016, 12:10 am



A diamond drill rig is hunting for more copper riches.

It’s like finding the needle in the haystack.

A few kilometres from Sandfire Resources' DeGrussa processing plant in the Mid West, a DDH1 diamond drill rig is hunting for more copper riches.



Although the C5 East hole has so far attracted little attention as it drills its way towards a target depth of about 600m, Sandfire hopes to hit some serious pay load within the next two weeks.



The theory is that just as the discovery of Conductor 4, an underground orebody that is being mined at DeGrussa, was followed by Conductor 5 nearby across a fault line, C5 East will uncover Conductor 6 180m past another fault line.



“We are always hopeful, we have to be in the exploration game,” Sandfire general manager geology Shannan Bamforth said at the DDH1 drill pad.



“On a scale of one to 10, this (C5 East hole) is getting towards the eight range. If we could grab another half of a Conductor 5 that would be great.”



Conductor 5's resource, which is being mined since last quarter, is 1.7 million tonnes grading 6.3 per cent copper and 2.8 grams per tonne gold, for 107,000t of copper metal.



Sandfire, which rose to fame with the high-grade DeGrussa copper-gold ore body 100km north of Meekatharra which it has been mining for the past four years, has spent close to $100 million on and around DeGrussa finding more reserves.



Other explorers have spent $60 million in the broader Doolgunna area trying to find another DeGrussa, without much success apart from the Talisman Mining-Sandfire joint discovery of Monty, 10km away.



Monty's maiden resource is 1.05 million tonnes grading 9.4 per cent copper.



The lack of big success around DeGrussa has worried Sandfire investors who want the profitable mine to remain in production beyond 2021.



Sandfire chief executive Karl Simich, however, is quick to point out that ongoing exploration as DeGrussa's underground mine has developed has repeatedly pushed out the mine life.



In its relatively short life, DeGrussa has produced more than $2 billion in revenue and $1 billion in free cash flow.



While no one is banking on C5 East, there is quiet hope within Sandfire it will deliver much-wanted ore and help to further explain the complex geology of the Doolgunna area.