Adelaide, May 3, 2006 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Oxiana Limited (AXS: OXR) expects to make a decision in August this year on whether the Prominent Hill copper-gold project receives the green light, Managing Director, Mr Owen Hegarty, said today.
Mr Hegarty told the 2006 Paydirt Resources and Energy Investment Conference in Adelaide that such a timeline would see first production in 2008.
"Between Prominent Hill's discovery in 2001 and first production in 2008 would be seven years - and we will claim that as a world record from discovery to production," Mr Hegarty said.
The Oxiana Managing Director said the company would announce, in coming weeks, a new resource figure following further drilling undertaken for the bankable feasibility study, which is nearly completed.
The Prominent Hill project is currently described as a 100 million tonne resource containing 1.5 million tonnes of copper and 2.6 million ounces of gold.
"Some of the grades at Prominent Hill are outstanding - some of the best drill intersections of copper and gold seen in Australia in the past 15-20 years - with 240 metres at more than 2% copper and half a gram of gold," Mr Hegarty said.
Mr Hegarty said Prominent Hill would produce 90-100,000 tonnes of copper, 110,000-130,000 ounces of gold and 420,000 ounces of silver a year. The project, which has a pre-feasibility capital cost of $530 million, is expected to have a mine life of nine years.
Looking ahead, Mr Hegarty said Oxiana had already identified a further 15 Prominent Hill-style targets in the surrounding region.
Source:
Peter Gill
Senior Consultant
FIELD PUBLIC RELATIONS
231 South Road
MILE END SA 5031
Tel: 08 8234 9555
Fax: 08 8234 9566
Mb: 0417 784 059
peter@fieldpr.com.au
Contact
Mr Owen Hegarty
Managing Director
Oxiana
TEL: +61 417 031 727
| ||
|
