Interesting news, as QMC do have many exploration and mine...

Interesting news, as QMC do have many exploration and mine leases with potential.


OZ Minerals has rejected criticism that it is taking too long to find new projects before its flagship Prominent Hill mine runs out of copper.

The copper and gold miner faced sustained questions from analysts on Wednesday about when it would make a new discovery at Prominent Hill in South Australia, or a merger or acquisition.

OZ Minerals announced that it had achieved full-year copper and gold production in 2011 in line with guidance.

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Investors liked the company's prospects, with its shares rising 24 cents, or 2.25 per cent, to close at $10.93.

However, analysts including Citigroup's Craig Sainsbury and RBS's Lyndon Fagan accused the company of being sluggish in discovering new revenue streams before the estimated end of Prominent Hill's production life in 2019.

"You haven't really found anything at Prominent Hill, haven't really done `M&A', so when do you guys have to make the tough decision?" Mr Sainsbury asked OZ Minerals chief executive Terry Burgess.

The mid-tier miner was mired in debt and almost collapsed in 2009, when it was forced to sell all its assets - except Prominent Hill - to Chinese state-owned Minmetals, to survive.

Mr Burgess on Wednesday said that although the company had not yet announced an acquisition it was actively looking for them.

"We could be doing all sorts of things: due diligence, secret meetings in cafes ... no one notices and at the end of six months' work nothing happens and people say you're doing nothing," he said during a teleconference.

"To be frank, I've see nothing that anyone else has done that makes me nervous about the fact we might be missing anything. I don't think we are.

"If we rush into a deal just to do a deal, then I think that's when you start destroying value."

OZ Minerals spent about $250 million buying a copper-gold deposit at Carrapateena in South Australia where a $2 billion project, including an underground mine development and processing plant are planned.

An obvious takeover possibility is WA copper play Sandfire Resources, in which OZ Minerals holds a 19.9 per cent stake.

Mr Burgess said he was interested in assets that would produce 50,000 to 150,000 tonnes of copper a year and could be brought into production by 2015-16.

The company produced 107,744 tonnes (t) of copper and 160,007 ounces (oz) of gold in 2011.

In 2010, OZ Minerals exceeded production targets, with total copper production of 112,171 tonnes and gold production of 196,400 ounces due to higher grades.

Copper production fell by 1.5 per cent in the final quarter of 2011 to 26,802 tonnes, while gold improved nearly five per cent to 37,814 ounces.

The company said, in a statement on Wednesday, that average cash costs of US70.4 cents a pound for the year (US84.2 cents in the December quarter) had also been in line with with guidance of US70c-US70.4c/lb.

However, cash costs in 2012 would rise to US100c/lb to US110c/lb due to more underground mining and higher transport and labour and other costs, the company said.

Its copper production guidance for the year has been maintained at 100,000t to 110,000t, with gold production expected to be between 130,000oz and 150,000oz.