Australian mining firms report strong quarterly results

Sandfire Resources has announced an expansion of its exploration efforts at the Kalkaroo copper-gold project in South Australia. The company is planning a 130km drilling campaign as part of a strategy to assess the project's potential, with a pre-feasibility study expected in the second half of the 2028 financial year.

Sandfire reported $480 million in sales revenue for the September quarter, driven by international operations in Spain and Botswana. The company generated an unaudited underlying EBITDA of $272 million and issued its first fully franked dividend in four years, totaling $117 million.

Separately, Stanmore Resources reported record coal production at its South Walker Creek operations. The company's saleable coal production reached 3.4 million tonnes for the quarter, with an average sales price of US$163 per tonne. Stanmore also declared a fully franked interim dividend of 2.2 US cents per share and reached an agreement to acquire the Moranbah South tenements for US$105 million, which is expected to add 724 million tonnes of coal resources.