PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Copper/gold miner Sandfire Resources has awarded shareholders a maiden dividend following a strong financial year.
During the full year ended June, Sandfire’s copper production from its DeGrussa mine, in Western Australia, increased to 64 719 t, compared with the 62 154 t delivered in 2013, with the mine also producing 31 788 oz of gold.
The production resulted in revenue increasing from A$507.3-million reported in 2013, to A$531.2-million, which drove cash flow from operating activities to A$223-million, after a A$26.5-million payment on exploration and evaluation.
Net profit for the full year declined to A$78.2-million, down from the A$88-million reported last year, on the back of a delayed ore shipment in June this year, which was completed in early July. The decline in net profit was also attributable to lower prevailing copper prices, as well as the completion of the direct shipping ore (DSO) and gold oxide toll treatment campaigns in 2013.
Sandfire MD Karl Simich said on Friday that declaring a maiden dividend was a major step for the company and came just five years after the discovery of the DeGrussa mine, and less than a year after the successful ramp-up of commercial production, and achieving steady-state production at the Western Australian mine.
“The DeGrussa operation delivered an impressive year of strong, low-cost, high-margin production, with both the underground mine and concentrator maintaining the nameplate 1.5-million-tonne-a-year production rate, over 22 km of underground development now completed and a strong consistent outlook for 2015.”
For 2015, Sandfire expected to produce between 65 000 t and 70 000 t of copper and between 35 000 oz and 40 000 oz of gold.
Meanwhile, Simich pointed out that the company would also advance its exploration push in the year ahead, with an underground drilling programme planned to target extensions of both the Conductor 4 and 5 lenses.
“Exploration is ramping up, both at the mine and regionally, and we are very confident of achieving both further additions to our existing resource inventory and making the key breakthrough regionally within the next 12 months,” he said.
Sandfire earlier this week also announced a C$16-million investment into TSX-listed copper developer Tintina Resources, which owns the Black Butte copper project, in the US.