KALGOORLIE (miningweekly.com) – Copper miner Sandfire Resources has officially opened its DeGrussa copper/gold mine, in Western Australia, four years after the deposit was first discovered.

The A$400-million project has, to date, produced over 70 000 t of copper metal and 50 000 oz of gold, worth over A$500-million since first copper was poured in October 2012.

“Today is the culmination of four years of hard work, which has resulted in the development of the impressive mining operation you see here,” said MD and CEO Karl Simich.

The DeGrussa operation is currently ramping up to nameplate production of 1.5-million tonnes a year, and the operation is expected to deliver between 65 000 t and 75 000 t of contained copper in concentrate and between 35 000 oz and 45 000 oz of gold.

“DeGrussa is without a doubt one of the standout new copper mines in the Asia-Pacific region; an exceptionally robust high-margin project with high grades and low costs, which makes it the envy of many in the industry,” said Simich.

He noted that the challenging environment that the industry was currently experiencing was similar, in several respects, to early 2009, when Sandfire rolled the dice and committed to a final gold drilling programme.

“Back then, we had just been through a round of retrenchments and cost-cutting, our bank balance was dwindling, our share price was three or four cents, and there was virtually no market interest,” Simich added.

“We were just another junior explorer, struggling to survive. But we kept going because we believed in the potential of this area to yield significant discoveries.”

Meanwhile, Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett said that the official opening of the DeGrussa mine was an indication that Australia’s resources industry was in good standing.

“The people who work in the mining- and the commodity-based industry know that it is cyclical, you will get periods of rising and falling prices, and not all commodities will move together,” Barnett said.

“But it’s the resilience and the spirit of the industry to develop projects like this that make the mining industry in Australia, and particularly in the state, so strong.”