JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Monty copper/gold deposit in Western Australia, which forms part of ASX-listed Talisman’s Springfield joint venture (JV) project with Sandfire Resources, has since the start of ground-breaking activities in July 2017, seen site activities having been ramped up considerably; on time and under budget.

Talisman, which owns 30% in the project, on Friday said that infrastructure works completed to date included bulk earthworks and civils; opening the boxcut; the construction of the 10-km haul road and water pipeline from Monty to Sandfire’s DeGrussa copper/gold mine and site infrastructure being erected.

Monty is one of the highest-grade copper/gold discoveries made globally in recent decades. The proximity of the deposit to Sandfire’s DeGrussa plant provides an expedited and low risk pathway to production with an extremely low development capital intensity compared to other greenfield copper discoveries globally.

The Monty feasibility study details forecast total production of 74 400 t of contained copper, plus 38 400 oz contained gold and 413 400 oz contained silver, over an initial ore production life of 30 months.

Meanwhile, the company reported that its underground mining contractor, Byrnecut Australia, continued to make good progress on Monty development and, at the end of December, the decline had advanced to 346 m, which was ahead of schedule compared with the corresponding feasibility study budget of 286 m.

Total development advance, including the decline, was 550 m, compared with the corresponding feasibility study budget of 440 m. First ore production remains on schedule for early in the fourth quarter.

Other development works continue to be advanced on schedule and under or on budget, including site office buildings, power station installation and reticulation, fuel storage facility, installation of site communications, ore haulage contracts and installation of permanent underground ventilation.

The construction of Monty is managed by the Sandfire Projects group, which allows the JV to leverage from existing DeGrussa operations, and a number of existing infrastructure and/or services already established at DeGrussa will continue to be used to provide synergies to the JV.