seriously..., page-27

Well it seems the guys next door at Oxiana are still bullish on copper in 2009....


OZ Minerals has no plans to slow its expansion projects despite the looming global slowdown, the company's chief executive says.

The copper, zinc and gold miner, which had a market capitalisation of $4.5 billion in September, expected a recovery in China in early 2009 to propel metal prices higher, and believed its low production costs would help it during today's low-price environment, CEO Andrew Michelmore said.

"We should see the first signs of a pick-up (in China) in the first half of next year," he said, adding the company was factoring in China's gross domestic product to grow by 8-10 per cent, with a high chance of beating expectations.

Mr Michelmore said the sharp fall in commodity prices and collapse in mining shares did not mean the long-term commodity bull run had ended.

Much of the rout in commodity markets had been driven by forced liquidation and panic selling from institutional investors who were not focusing on fundamentals, he said.

"The general trend is up but we'll still have cycles in it."

Dow Jones Newswires