Bornite bonus at Monty

• Kristie Batten
  • 15 Oct 2015
    • 13:10
    • News

SANDFIRE Resources has intersected a thick zone of bornite-bearing massive sulphides in the Lower Zone of the Monty copper-gold discovery.

Three horizons of massive sulphides have been intersected in the latest diamond hole, including 19.9m of massive sulphides from 340.2m down-hole.
Significantly, the mineralisation contains variable amounts of bornite, a copper-bearing sulphide which typically has a copper content of around 63% by mass.
Bornite has not previously been encountered in significant amounts in the Doolgunna region, but is seen in many volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits worldwide.
Sandfire managing director Karl Simich described the intersection as an exciting breakthrough.
“The presence of bornite in the drill core, not seen before at Doolgunna in significant quantities, is a significant development although more work is needed to understand its context,” he said.

“In the meantime, drilling is continuing to provide valuable information on the overall orientation and extents of the mineralisation in both the Lower Zone and Upper Zone.”
New assays from both zones include 3.4m at 3.5% copper and 0.8 grams per tonne gold in the Lower and 12m at 5.7% copper and 1.8gpt gold in the Upper.
“As I’ve said before, this is an unfolding story for Sandfire as we continue drilling both to accurately define what we have at Monty and to begin to step further afield, with the objective of finding the next lenses or clusters of lenses of VMS mineralisation,” Simich said.

Sandfire is earning a 70% interest in Monty and the broader Springfield project from Talisman Mining by spending $A15 million.
Talisman’s ground adjoins Sandfire’s Doolgunna project, which contains the DeGrussa copper mine.
Last week, Bell Potter estimated that Monty could contain 1-1.4 million tonnes grading 7% copper for 70,000-100,000 tonnes of contained copper, but suggested that could be a conservative estimate.
“We can see potential for up to 1.6Mt of ore contained in the Lower and Upper Zones,” analyst David Coates said.
“Modelling the top end of our conservative estimate (100% basis) adds $219 million to our net present value, increases head grades [at DeGrussa] by 12%-16% over the remaining life-of-mine, maintains copper production between 70,000-75,000tpa, lowers C1 costs by 12-15% and delivers a 32% increase in earnings for the first year of full production.”
As a result, Bell Potter boosted Sandfire’s price target to $7.20 from $6.25, while it has a 90c target price on Talisman.
Shares in Sandfire rose 1.9% to $6.28, while Talisman rose 4% to 52c.