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“This is where flexibility of being able good, long look at Golden Grove,” he said.
to do exploration while in feasibility study “And I think what Sandfire is looking to do
mode is beneficial. We have a raft of would’ve made sense and would’ve been
high-priority targets identical to A4 so the as good an outcome as what was achieved
chances of finding further satellite orebod- with the IPO.”
ies within trucking distance feeding into the Simich admitted there was a dearth of
central Motheo hub is high.” available assets but said the Sandfire de-
With the updated feasibility study expect- velopment team was prepared to consider
ed later this year, Sandfire has ramped up any opportunity in base and future-facing
project finance planning. The company has metals.
around $500 million in treasury, but Simich “By 2025 we want to be producing
indicated a level of third-party financing 150,000 tpa copper equivalent or have a
would still be sought. clear idea on how we get there, to do that,
“We do want to have a degree of stand- we can’t be myopic and say we can only
ard project debt funding, probably for 50% operate in WA,” he said. “There is little in
of the capex and working capital, so maybe the development pipeline but it is an excit-
around $US150-160 million,” he said. “We ing business and so we need to look at the
are very advanced in that process and can globe. We believe we are capable of imple-
wrap it up now we have the mining licence.” menting our strategy on a global scale.”
Accessing bank debt will also give Sand- Successful development of T3/A4 will
fire added flexibility if it finds further oppor- only add to investor confidence that Sand-
tunities. fire is capable of building projects any-
Sandfire has several high-priority targets “We are aspirational and looking to grow where.
ready to drill this year the business,” Simich said. “We have been “We are mindful of how fundamental
busy looking at opportunities.” Botswana is to maintain maximum flexibil-
in the next few years on the 11,000sq km Simich confirmed the company had ity for something else,” Simich said. “The
land package in Botswana. made a bid for the Golden Grove polym- most significant strategic imperative is to
“The opportunity still exists to explore the etallic operation before owner EMR Capital buy an existing operation after we build
belt and we have just completed the largest chose to float it via 29Metals Ltd and a $528 Botswana.”
AEM survey ever undertaken in Botswana,” million IPO in June. – Dominic Piper
Simich said. “It would’ve been silly not to have had a

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