oxr: i'd be very suprised..... good to see Owen Hegarty ramping...

oxr: i'd be very suprised..... good to see Owen Hegarty ramping the stock to the new US investors who can now buy up the ADR's and invest in this #3 mining company on the ASX.

All holders of OXR should read below and enjoy their weekend!!

Friday January 6, 9:57 AM
INTERVIEW: Australia's Oxiana Tips Record 2005 Profit

By James Attwood
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

SYDNEY (Dow Jones)--Australian diversified miner Oxiana Ltd. (OXR.AU) is confident of meeting production targets and posting record profits for the 2005 calendar year.


In October Oxiana cut the 2005 gold target at its flagship Sepon mine in Laos to 200,000 troy ounces from a previous 210,000-230,000 estimate after heavy rainfall hindered its third quarter performance.

"I'd be very surprised if we don't hit," 200,000 ounces, Managing Director Owen Hegarty told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview Thursday.

Hegarty said Oxiana held an onsite celebration Wednesday to mark Sepon passing 500,000 ounces since it began gold production in 2003.

Sepon's copper operation meanwhile is performing as expected after the plant was commissioned in March.

"I can't finalize a number but I'd be very surprised if we don't hit the (copper) target of 30,000 tons this year," he said.

The company's official production report is due to be released in the last week of January.

The Golden Grove zinc-focused operation in Western Australia state is also on track after Oxiana took over operations from former owner Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM) in July, Hegarty said.

"With these acquisitions you only really find out what you've got once you get the keys and (in this case) there have been no surprises, it's gone very well."

"In the quarterlies we'll have some good numbers in terms of production and we're looking forward to 2006," he said.

Hegarty also flagged record company profits in 2005 with zinc prices surging 60% in the six months since the company took over Golden Grove, copper posting a string of all-time highs and gold surging to multi-decade highs.

"I'd be very surprised if we don't make record profits that's for sure, and that's what most analysts are forecasting."

"Effectively 2005 only had half of Sepon copper and only half of Golden Grove so with copper prices still going up and zinc, lead, silver, gold all going up we're looking for an outstanding year in 2006," he said.

Hegarty declined to comment on possible negative implications on the company's bottom line from Australia's new tax provisions with regards to hedging in a rising price environment.

Regarding expansion plans, he said the company will spend most of 2006 completing the feasibility study and optimization work on a project to double Sepon's copper processing capacity to 120,000 tons ahead of a development decision later this year.

Similarly, a decision on expanding Sepon's gold capacity is expected by year-end once metallurgical testing and optimization work is complete.

A feasibility study into developing the Prominent Hill copper-gold project in South Australia state for an estimated A$530 million is progressing according to plan, he said, with detailed engineering studies and cost testing underway.

The feasibility study is due for completion midyear, with production set to begin in the second half of 2008 at a rate of 90,000-100,000 tons of copper and 110,000-130,000 ounces of gold.

Oxiana is banking on its existing talent pool at Golden Grove to help offset the impact of Australia's well-documented labor shortages and related cost pressures on Prominent Hill's development and operation.

Hegarty said the company's exploration ambitions in China, on an extension of the same mineral belt as Sepon, are "looking good," while work on an exploration joint venture in Thailand continues.

In the Philippines, talks are underway with parties interested in taking over Oxiana's exploration properties to allow the company to focus more on Sepon, he said.