PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Copper/gold miner Sandfire Resources has reported a solid quarter of production in the three months to March.

Copper production in the period under review remained stable at 16 803 t, compared with the 16 390 t produced in the previous quarter, while gold production declined slightly from 9 660 oz to 9 100 oz.

For the full year, Sandfire is predicting production to be at the upper end of the guidance of between 67 000 t and 70 000 t of copper, and between 36 000 oz and 40 000 oz of gold.

“The March quarter has delivered exciting progress for Sandfire on a number of fronts, against the backdrop of continued strength in the copper price and a robust outlook for copper,” MD and CEO Karl Simich said on Wednesday.

“In recent weeks, several major investment banks have further upgraded their outlook, with Goldman Sachs in particular lifting its price target to $15 000/t by 2025 on the back of global decarbonisation and a looming chronic supply deficit.

“Sandfire is one of the few copper exposures on the ASX with a blend of existing high-grade, high margin production, an exceptional development pipeline in Botswana and the US which looks more attractive in the current environment, and some exceptional organic exploration opportunities.”

Simich pointed out that in Australia, Sandfire’s DeGrussa operations delivered another quarter of strong copper and gold production, putting it on track for the upper end of its 2021 guidance band.

“We were able to take full advantage of the healthy copper price environment, with copper hitting a 10-year high of $9 550/t in late February.

“There were exciting developments on other fronts too, with the commencement of initial site activities at the T3-Motheo copper/silver project in Botswana, completion of resource in-fill drilling at the A4 discovery, and the start of the first exploration drilling programme at the Black Butte project in Montana in over 10 years.

“There are also plenty of significant investment and potential share price catalysts in front of us as well.”

Simich noted that the government of Botswana is expected to award the mining licence for the T3 project in the coming weeks, clearing the way for full-scale construction of the $259-million project development to commence.

Construction crews are ready to mobilise to site to ramp up development as soon as the mining licence is in place, with T3 representing one of the few new copper mines in development anywhere in the world, he said.

“The delivery of an upgraded Resource at A4 will underpin a feasibility study targeted for completion in the September quarter. The A4 deposit represents a key element of our strategy to rapidly expand production at the Motheo production hub from the initial base case rate of 3.2-million tonnes a year up to 5.2-million tonnes a year.

“Regional exploration across the Kalahari copper belt is also moving into top gear, both within the Motheo expansion area and further afield, including across our licences in Namibia.

“We also expect to receive results from the exploration drilling at Black Butte and we have many other significant exploration activities underway – including a deep hole at DeGrussa to test for down-plunge extensions of the known ore system and a raft of activity underway across the Eastern Seaboard in the Temora and Cobar regions.”