July 21, 2009
OZ Minerals is looking at small acquisitions in the wake of its improved finances but will focus on expanding its key assets, the company says.
In its second quarter update released today, the company also says it remains on track to meet its production and costs guidance for this year.
After being forced to sell-off off nearly all key assets due to high debt, the company's sole remaining mine is now the Prominent Hill gold and copper mine in South Australia.
The sell-off has left OZ Minerals with about $US800 million ($980.93 million) in the bank, acting chief executive Bruce Loveday told journalists on Tuesday.
Mr Loveday said it was too early to talk about how the money would be spent, but some of it would be used to expand Prominent Hill, and to explore their gold play in Cambodia.
"We think there is the ... likelihood of some bolt-on, smaller type acquisitions,'' Mr Loveday said.
"I think even though we are in a better position than we were, there may still be a few outworkings of some of the credit market difficulties yet to be seen.
"Whether or not the company tries to undertake any substantial acquisition in the future .... It will do so, if it does, on a prudent basis," he said.
Mr Loveday said OZ Minerals was endeavouring to complete the bulk of expansion work at Prominent Hill by the end of the year, with underground development by the middle of 2010.
"We could have underground production from Prominent Hill starting to come through during 2013,'' he said.
OZ Minerals said copper mined at Prominent Hill in the three months to June 30 was 27,159 tonnes, while gold was 18,351 ounces.
The miner said production at Prominent Hill was on track to meet previous guidance of 85,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes of copper and 60,000 ounces to 70,000 ounces of gold.
Mr Loveday said he was hopeful about the prospects for copper prices.
"We remain of a view that the fundamental outlook for copper as sort of a two- to five-year-time horizon is actually very robust,'' he said.
He also sounded up-beat about the company's work in Cambodia, where they are undertaking gold exploration.
"We have now done a reasonable amount of work there (Cambodia) and I think it is fair to say we have done enough work now to believe that there may well be a gold system there that is of interest to OZ Minerals," Mr Loveday said.
1 comment:
can we khmer explore our own. i think all metal and other precious resources should control by our own.
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