Sandfire Resources has completed the sale of its first shipment of copper concentrate from its DeGrussa mine.
The miner’s maiden shipment of 4958 dry tonnes of copper concentrate was sold on a spot basis ahead of Sandfire’s main copper concentrate sales contracts, which begin next month.
The shipment was produced as part of the commissioning process for the 1.5 million tonne per annum DeGrussa concentrator.
Mining of Stage I of the open pit is now completed and all DSO chalcolcite has been mined, with its crushing and sale to continue into early next year.
Mining of Stage II will continue into mid 2013, extracting further sulphide and oxide copper.
Sandfire has also recently signed another three sales contracts for its copper concentrate, taking its total number to four so far, all of which run for up to three year terms.
Karl Simich, Sandfire’s managing director, said shipments under the contracts will begin next month, as the company completes its production ramp up.
“Plant commissioning and production ramp up at DeGrussa is proceeding with the company on track to achieve steady state nameplate production rates of up to 77 000 tonnes per annum of copper concentrate in early 2013,” Simich said.