oz minerals exceeds production targets

http://www.smh.com.au/business/oz-minerals-exc

OZ Minerals exceeds production targets

January 20, 2011 - 10:19AM

OZ Minerals says it expects to produce 110,000 tonnes of copper and up to 205,000 tonnes of gold from its Prominent Hill mine in 2011, after exceeding production targets in 2010.

OZ Minerals says total copper production in 2010 was 112,171 tonnes and gold production was 196,400 ounces.

In early trade, OZ Minerals stock fell as much as 6 cents, or 3.37 per cent, to $1.72.

Advertisement: Story continues below In the December quarter, Prominent Hill produced 25,185 tonnes of copper, down from 26,841 tonnes in the September quarter of 2010.

Gold production in the December 2010 quarter was a record high of 54,128 ounces, up from 51,451 ounces in the September quarter.

Oz Minerals says it achieved record copper and gold prices in the three months to December 31, 2010.

"Cash costs of US43.5 cents per pound for the quarter and US46.4 cents for the year place Prominent Hill in the first quartile of global producers," the company said.

The miner says open pit ore mining rates were expected to remain steady in 2011.

"In 2011, ore milled throughput is planned to increase to 9.6 Mtpa, which, with lower grades of copper ore mined and recoveries at current levels, will see production of between 100,000 tonnes and 110,000 tonnes of copper maintained."

OZ Minerals says underground construction is on track for first ore in the first quarter of 2012.
_____________________

A good article summarising the main points from the Quarterly. A poor day on the markets but it will be hard to keep this company down for long.