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Tuesday March 27, 4:14 PMOxiana sees copper output up a third, boosts goldSINGAPORE, March 27 (Reuters) - Australian miner Oxiana Resources Ltd. aims to boost copper cathode output by one-third to around 80,000 tonnes in coming years and push up gold production as it takes over another miner, general manager Peter Albert told Reuters on Tuesday."Our production rate at the moment is 60,000 tonnes. But we're continuing to do engineering exercises to expand that, and that will happen over the next one, two, three years as we incrementally increase the capacity of the project," said Albert, referring to the company's target to produce more than 80,000 tonnes of copper cathode a year. Copper ore mined by Oxiana is turned into cathode ready for fabricating into wire and rod at the company's Khanong project in Laos, 600 kilometres (375 miles) southeast of capital Vientiane, to supply buyers mainly in Vietnam and Malaysia. "We have two new significant resources at Thenkam North and Thenkam South, only about 5 km away from the project site, and they will extend the reserves of the project going forward," he said on the sidelines of a mining conference. Oxiana, which operates in Australia and Laos, said its annual profit from continuing operations surged to A$550 million ($444 million) in 2006 from a restated A$70.3 million in 2005, in line with expectations. The company met its full-year production targets, producing 60,803 tonnes of copper cathode in Laos in 2006 and 173,524 ounces of gold. Oxiana restated its 2005 profit from A$80.3 million after changing its functional currency to U.S. dollar. In January, Oxiana, which is conducting mining exploration in Cambodia, Thailand and southern China, offered to buy Agincourt Resource Ltd. for A$415 million to expand in gold mining and gain a foothold in uranium as the company plans to diversify its commodity exposures. Once it owns Agincourt, Oxiana will push ahead with development of the company's Martabe gold project in North Sumatra, Indonesia, which is estimated to hold 5.8 million ounces of gold. "It's a friendly takeover and recommended by the Agincourt board. The shareholders accepted the Oxiana offer. More than 50 percent has gone across the line. We are now starting the process of taking over the management of the company," he said. Albert gave no projection for Oxiana's gold output once the takeover is completed. ($1=A$1.24) |
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