This is a cut and paste from S/Scene with compliments to Gofish,...

This is a cut and paste from S/Scene with compliments to Gofish, Note OH is not talking just double to 120,000 tons he is talking "at least 120000 tons" this is from a man who consistantly understates and then over delivers.

From Miningnews.net

Oxiana copper growth
Jesse Riseborough

Friday, September 02, 2005
GOLD and copper producer Oxiana has calculated an initial resource at Thengkham North of more than 400,000 tonnes of copper, taking the company's Sepon inventory of the red metal to more than two million tonnes.

A pre-feasibility study to assess the potential for doubling the copper production capacity at Sepon to 120,000tpa by 2009 is now underway, with options including the expansion of the existing SX-EW treatment plant as well as the addition of new processing facilities.

Oxiana managing director Owen Hegarty told MiningNews.net the result was in line with the company's expectations.

"It is very much an initial resource, we finished the drilling up until the so-called wet season, we will re-commence that in October. As you can see it is still very much open and we will be very surprised if it doesn't grow substantially bigger," he said.

The new inferred resource, completed by Oxiana and its resources consultants Hellman & Schofield, stands at 29.4Mt at 1.5% copper, 0.3 grams per tonne of gold and 7gpt of silver for a total 429,000t of copper using a 0.5% cut-off grade. The estimate was a result of a six-month drilling campaign comprising of 189 holes for 15,498m.

The deposit was also said to contain an inferred resource of 260,000 ounces of gold and 7Moz of silver, and a significant quantity of molybdenum, though it was unclear whether the latter could be extracted economically.

In terms of the copper processing expansion at Sepon, Hegarty said the pre-feasibility study would take around 12 months to complete and would consider a range of options including a facility that could produce more than the initial target of 120,000tpa.

"From a resource perspective we are not really limited, so you should look at a range of production and that depends again on what capacity your have in your existing plant and how much space you have got and all that type of thing," he said.

"We are thinking at least 120,000tpa."

Hegarty would not be drawn on estimating a capital cost, but explained the four-year timeframe given to the expansion was more of measure of caution rather than a practical constraint.

"Theoretically we ought to be able to do it sooner than that but again we just wanted to be sure that we get the existing plant bedded down, get all the work done and by the time you do all that you are out to 2008-09 anyway.

"Yes it could be down sooner and it could be seriously fast tracked but we thought we would just go out a little [in timeframe] and have it done at least by then."

The copper mineralisation at Thengkham North, located 7km west of the Sepon copper processing plant, was described as "very shallow" and predominantly of supergene origin with composites having been sent for metallurgical test work.

Oxiana said it had now identified two main copper systems with the Sepon district, Khanong and Thengkham, with resource growth expected to continue above the 75% increase in copper resources the company has achieved over the past two years in the region. The Thengkham copper system was said to cover around 30sq.km of anomalous copper in soil geochemistry, with only 50% of the ground currently tested.

Oxiana is currently considering a $530 million development at its Prominent Hill copper-gold operation in South Australia, with initial production pegged for July-October 2008.

Shares in Oxiana were trading up 4c (3.5%) in morning trade at $1.17.