Exploration company Sandfire Resources has obtained a mining license for its Motheo copper mine in Botswana. The mining license is the final major license required for the company to begin full construction of the $279 million project. Sandfire has started preliminary site work in Motheo earlier in 2021, including disinfection drilling, 15 kilometers of passages and the construction of a 200-person camp.

The Motheo project will be developed within two years and is expected to start mining in early 2022, and is scheduled to be commissioned and put into production in early 2023. Karl Simich, Managing Director and CEO of Sandfire, said: "The granting of the mining license represents an important milestone and it will witness a significant increase in site construction and development activities. We are very pleased to be able to carry out full-scale construction in Motheo now and expect Our construction staff will be mobilized to the site in the next few days." "I want to thank the Botswana government for its support throughout the approval process, which will put Motheo into production in 2023 and become one of the few new copper mines in the world to start production. one."

In June, Sandfire awarded the mining contract for the T3 pit to Perenti Global’s open-pit mining business, African Mining Services (AMS). It is said that the current mining license meets one of the two important conditions required to finalize the contract. T3-Motheo's final feasibility study (DFS) was completed in December 2020, highlighting the initial 3.2 million tons (Mtpa) processing capacity and the strong economic and technical results of the T3 deposit development. The study outlines the first 12.5 years of stable operations. It is estimated that during the first 10 years of operation, an average of nearly 30kt of copper and 1.2Moz of silver was produced per year.

As far as the approval of the mining license is concerned, the Botswana government has the right to acquire up to 15% of the fully funded interest in the T3-Motheo project. However, the Botswana government has not notified Sandfire of its decision to acquire the ownership shares. Simich added: "Motheo is expected to create approximately 1,000 jobs during construction and 600 full-time jobs during operations, and represents the foundation of Sandfire's long-term growth plan in Botswana.

Our vision is that Motheo will become the center of a new, long-lived copper production center in the middle of the world-class Kalahari copper belt, where we have extensive land spanning Botswana and Namibia. Sandfire is looking forward to becoming a major long-term participant in the Kalahari Copper Belt, one of the last large underexplored copper mining areas in the world.Editor/Baohongying