This release is from the OZL web site. HC 42OZ Minerals,...

This release is from the OZL web site. HC 42

OZ Minerals, Prominent Hill underground starts production
30 Mar 2012
On Thursday 29 March, the Prominent Hill underground team fired the first production holes in the first stope of the Ankata underground mine.

OZ Minerals CEO Terry Burgess said ‘this is an excellent milestone for Prominent Hill, delivering on our commitment to achieve first production from stoping in the first quarter of 2012. We now have an open cut and underground mine in operation, which should enable OZ Minerals to maintain production at 100,000t to 110,000t of copper in concentrates’.

Development of the underground mine at Prominent Hill commenced in November 2010 to access the higher grade Ankata deposit. The access decline reached the Ankata orebody in August 2011 and the first development ore was successfully hauled to surface in September 2011.

The focus will now be on increasing production to a rate of 1.2 million tonnes per annum in the third quarter of 2012. The underground mine is expected to contribute 0.8Mt to 1.0Mt of ore in the 2012 ramp-up year. The average grade of the Ankata ore to be mined in 2012 is expected to be in the range of 2.3 to 2.8 percent copper.