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In contrast to the deeper sediment-hosted been predominately exploration and desktop will allow us to transition into a mid-tier base
T3 deposit, A4 is a shallow higher-grade vein- work that doesn’t require on-ground activity, metals company. Our internal marker is more
hosted deposit. The success at A4 has led the things haven’t progressed as speedily was we than 100,000 tpa copper within three years
Sandfire exploration team returned to airborne would’ve expected.” and 150,000 tpa in five years. But we need
EM data to identify other near-surface targets, Drill rigs returned to site in June with A4 to prove we can build T3 and expand from
including the A1 Dome prospect, 20km along resource drilling to be completed as well as 30,000 tpa to 50,000 tpa copper to achieve
strike from A4. earlier-stage drilling on A1 and the T20 project, that.”
While DeGrussa barely missed a beat dur- 100km west of T3. The company now controls Taking T3 and Black Butte into develop-
ing the fleeting restrictions in WA, Sandfire’s 18,000sq km of prospective ground in Bot- ment will also clear the company to search for
progress in Botswana has been affected by swana and Namibia, giving it confidence it can new opportunities. Simich said the team was
COVID lockdown measures. expand from any initial operation at T3. always looking at M&A opportunities but was
“It did change things because we had to Simich said an investment decision on T3 finding it difficult to find assets which were a
adapt but the operations were not affected,” was expected by the end of 2020. It is obvious good fit.
Simich said. “The development projects were he sees it as Sandfire returning to what it does “Once we have a decision-to-mine on T3
though. We’ve had no one in Botswana for six best – building mines. a very capable group we will then be in execution mode which is an
“ The T3 Hub feasibility study around us,” he said. I’ve are canvassing opportunities now but I have
“We’re getting back to work and we’ve built
opportunity for us fill the pipeline for the next
months and while the work in that period has
five-year development window,” he said. “We
been involved in build-
to say there are not many. We could go ag-
ing 18 mines and we
gressive on something but that usually means
is going well and once that
one set of shareholders wins and the other
have got people like
is released towards the end of
Julian Hanna, Ian Kerr
and Rob Scargill directly
the scheme of arrangement we did with Mod.
the year people will come to the
involved. These are all loses. We would much rather something like
“We are still receptive to mature projects,
conclusion that we have a 50-60,000 high-quality executives PFS-level projects or even scoping study level.
tpa scenario, a plus-10-year mine in their own right. We can be more patient this time around be-
“T3 places us at the cause we will have T3 and Black Butte in the
life and long legs because the beginning of a multidec- development plan.”
exploration opportunity is fantastic. ade opportunity which – Dominic Piper

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aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT OCTOBeR 2020 Page 67