Where the mood may take us Jamie Freed December 10, 2007
Smooth sailing The Laos copper-gold miner Pan Australian could prove a tempting target for Oxiana as it continues to report good news about its Phu Kham project.
The $US241 million ($274 million) first-stage at Phu Kham is under construction and should produce its first concentrate in the coming March quarter. But Pan is already thinking bigger. Last week it obtained a $US75 million debt facility to give it the funds to order a ball mill for an expansion of the project. In a rare move in the overheated mining sector, Pan thinks it will complete the second-stage of Phu Kham six months early. Phu Kham could therefore produce 65,000 tonnes of copper a year and 60,000 ounces of gold from 2010. That would make it similar in size to Oxiana's present operations at the Sepon copper-gold project in Laos.
PNA Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held