Sandfire hunts for room to grow
Mbongeni Mguni | Monday July 13, 2026 06:00
Jamie Carratti, director and asset president of Sandfire’s Motheo operations, told the recent Future of Mining Summit that the Australian company was pulling out all the stops to extend its time on the Kalahari Copperbelt.
“We see huge value in where we are and we're doing airborne gravity surveys, doing structural mapping, doing everything that we can possibly do within our toolbox to try and understand where the next deposit is,” he said. “Ideally, it's right next to our process facility because that makes it far easier, but we are going to explore deeply in this area because we think there is significantly more to give.”
Sandfire’s Motheo Mine commenced production in July 2023 and has a lifespan of approximately seven years left. Within that period, the operation has proved to be a revenue spinner for both Sandfire and the government, with an economic contribution of P4 billion in the 2024 financial year alone.
In the coming year, the mine is expected to pay up to $150 million (P2 billion) in tax alone, with Carratti estimating that the operation would contribute up to P38 billion into the economy in its remaining years.
'Our biggest challenge is that we only have seven years of mine life remaining but with the life of mine that we have, as you can see, we're going to contribute a lot to this economy. “A lot of it is through payments, through contracts of suppliers, taxation, but our opportunity and our biggest priority is to expand our mine life. “So, we're looking heavily at exploration within the region,” he told the Summit.
Carratti said Sandfire holds just under 10,000 square kilometres in prospecting licences and since inception in Botswana has spent P74.5 million on exploration, with plans to ramp this up to P24 million for the next financial year.
“We believe that there is significantly more copper there than what we've found and we're going to do everything that we can to try and find it. “In exploration, we have 19 people working within our exploration team and 98% of them are Batswana,” he said.
Whilst Motheo and Khoemacau are the only operating mines on the Kalahari Copperbelt, the 1,000-kilometre swathe running southwest to northeast, is one of the busiest mineral zones for exploration in the country. The region is known to contain millions of tonnes of copper and other critical minerals, but in previous decades, heavy sands and poor infrastructure restrained development.
Carratti said Sandfire had moved from an original processing plan of 3.2 million tonnes per annum to 5.2 million tonnes and is now at 5.6 million tonnes.
“In the first half of 2025 we achieved about 28,600 tonnes of copper and this year we're in line for about 59,000 and we're pushing for more. “Motheo shows what is able to be built here in Botswana,” he said.
Carratti added: “We look forward to continuing this journey far beyond the seven years that we currently have in our life at mine. “Our goal is to be here for decades to come.”