Monty feasibility is strong, at 9.4% copper!

Posted by Daniel Gleeson on 10th April 2017

Sandfire Resources announces that the feasibility study on the Monty copper-gold project, located 10km east of its 100%-owned DeGrussa copper-gold mine in Western Australia, has been completed and approved by the Springfield Joint Venture. It is a JV between Sandfire 70% and manager and Talisman Mining 30%. The robust life-of-mine (LOM) study outcomes include:

  • Mine plan of 0.80 Mt grading 9.4% Cu and 1.5g/t Au for 74,000 t of contained copper and 38,000 oz of contained gold (100% basis)
  • Total contained metal production of 70,000 t copper, 21,000 oz gold, 288,000 oz silver
  • Three-year production life following one year of access development
  • Pre-production outlay of A$50 million (70% JV share) including project capital and pre-production costs
  • Maiden Monty Ore Reserve of 0.92 Mt grading 8.7% Cu and 1.4g/t Au
  • Sandfire will purchase Talisman’s 30% share of the Monty JV ore under an Ore Sale and Purchase Agreement (OSPA)
  • All Monty ore will be processed at the DeGrussa concentrator, where concentrate capacity will be expanded to 400,000 t/y
  • DeGrussa mining rate to be reduced from current 1.6 Mt/y to 1.2-1.3 Mt/y from mid-FY2019 to allow ore from Monty to be blended in at a rate of 0.3-0.4 Mt/y
  • The 16.42 km2 Monty Mining Lease and Miscellaneous Licence for the haul road to DeGrussa granted. All remaining approvals are expected by end-FY2017
  • Early work packages have commenced for development of the Monty project, including tendering for the main contracts. Development of the box-cut for the underground portal is expected to commence during Q2 FY2018
  • Sandfire’s share of capital expenditure to be internally funded by cash reserves and cashflow from the DeGrussa operation
  • The Monty discovery reflects the high-grade copper-gold endowment within the region and has opened up a highly prospective corridor as a priority focus for ongoing exploration. A new program of deep diamond drilling will commence shortly to test the prospective sequence at depth, along strike of Monty and provide a DHEM platform, in conjunction with other ongoing exploration activities along the Monty Mine Corridor.