Western Australia's Sandfire Resources unconcernedWestern...

Western Australia's Sandfire Resources unconcernedWestern Australian copper producer Sandfire Resources Ltd. said Nov. 3 that it was "not aware of the reasons for the reported potential ban or the reliability of the media reports."Sandfire CEO Karl Simich told Market Intelligence on Nov. 4 that the company had heard nothing from its Chinese customers about the ban and said it may learn more after certain sales tenders come in. On the sidelines of the Africa Down Under conference, Simich said it was important to note that Sandfire's capacity is about 70,000 tonnes per annum while the global copper concentrate market is about 18 million tonnes.Simich said Sandfire's product goes to China, Japan, South Korea, "potentially Europe" and India. "So if it turns out that the Chinese don't buy it, and are told not to buy it, all that will happen is that the Koreans, Japanese and Taiwanese will buy it all anyway, so it makes no difference," he said.The company's copper concentrate is of a high quality due to the low amount of deleterious elements such as arsenic, mercury or uranium that are present in certain other Australian producers' product, Simich said. "That's why the traders love it, as they can buy it, blend it and create a product they can sell.""We could never fill our customers' demand because we don't have enough product," Simich added. "The reason why we sell to China is they pay, at the margin, a fraction more because they're always happy to overbid the Japanese and Koreans."