Alsy,You are right on the money with your post, unfortunately...

Alsy,

You are right on the money with your post, unfortunately for the readers on HC it's low on facts let me add some depth.

Yes, bigest rewards are yet to come from this stock. Many important reasons for this, you've mentioned a few, let me add to this:

Oxiana is one of the lowest cost producers in the world today, @ < A$ 190 take this from the current SP A$570 and the gross margin is A$380 allow for administration and distribution costs the estimated NPAT for this year could be in the region of $48 milion at a multiple of 20 this equates to a share price of $1. now 2004/05 production plan is 250,000+ oz, based on the above margins OXR share price should be $1.60+ .

If Oxiana ramps up its production to 400,000 by 2008, (2007/08 the plan) share price should be in the vicinity of $2.70+

This is based on the assumption that gold price stays @USD 380. more good news if the price goes to $450. or higher.. who knows.

Now, this is not all, there is more good news, here is an article published this morning in Denver. Enjoy and sleep well. This is big news i'm unsure if this is something OXR may announce to the ASX shortly. It's public in US as of this morning.


2003/09/23 Tue 08:37 ZE2 | © Mineweb 1997-2003

DENVER – Oxiana, the unhedged Australian gold miner, has joined the trickle of gold producers entering China in a bid book a place in the world’s largest remaining unexplored gold province.
Owen Hegarty, Oxiana’s chief executive, said today the group was using its existing production base in neighbouring Laos as a platform to establish a presence in the city of Kunming, in the Southern Chinese province of Yunnan.

Oxiana, Hegarty said, had been invited to review a number of gold properties in the province by the regional government. The open door provided by the authorities gives the group a leg-up over many of its larger competitors, which are wrangling with mining and prospecting approvals from a notoriously slow moving Chinese state bureaucracy.

The company expected to have what it called “reconnaissance results” available in the new year, once it had secured title and permits over its own tenements. “Once we’ve got the ground we can do the work,” said Hegarty.

The leap into China will be an easier one for Oxiana to manage than for many of its larger peers, which have little experience of operating in South East Asia. Laos - where Oxiana operates its Sepon gold mine - and the neighbouring Kunming, share similar languages and customs and regulators in both regions have a close relationship, Hegarty said.

Similarities may also extend beyond culture, to the geology of the gold ore bodies in China.

A comparable gold trends extends northwards from Kingsgate’s Chatree deposit in the East, toward Kunnan in Southern China.

Meanwhile, the trend, which hosts Oxiana’s Sepon deposit also extends in a north-westerly direction to Kunnan. Oxiana is betting to the two converge in China, boosting the probability of a large deposit at their intersection.

Max headroom

The Chinese entry will further boost the attractiveness of one of Australia’s most promising gold producers. Oxiana is an oddity among producing Australian gold companies in that it is unhedged, debt-free and has $50 million in the bank. With that pedigree, which appeals to a hedging-averse gold investment market, headroom for expansion at both a corporate and operational level is clear.

An intriguing possibility for the Oxiana management team is gaining an entrée to the North American retail market through the listing of an American Depository Receipt (ADR) programme.

South African gold producers across the spectrum have used the US-traded ADR to spectacular effect in recent years, capitalising on a voracious appetite for gold stocks – particularly those that are unhedged. The increased liquidity which has flowed from the easier access to North America, along with astute marketing efforts, has caused massive upward value reratings for the South African stocks, which now have their prices made in the US.

Hegarty says access to the North American market is a development “shareholders should not be denied”. The group currently has 74 percent of its shareholders in Australia, 22 percent in Europe, 1 percent in Asia and only 3 percent in North America.

Operations

Reserves are climbing as exploration increases, growing from 930,000 ounces last year, to 1.57 million ounces this year. At the same time, resources have grown from 3.5 million ounces to 4.1 million ounces. Hegarty said once previously untouched primary material was drilled at Sepon, there would be “oodles of upside”.

Oxiana is aiming at reaching production of about 140,000 ounces this year at about $126/oz . At the end of next year, after bedding down the current production levels, the group would increase milling capacity at Sepon by half. Hegarty said the mine would be producing at the expanded rate of more than 250,000 oz a year by the beginning of 2005.

Then it would move directly to the deeper lying “primary material”, which would take production to between 400,000 ounces and 500,000 ounces by 2008, the actual level dependant on the realised grade.

“That’s the level the reserve base deserves,” said Hegarty.

Copper possibilities

Aside from the excitement created by the gold potential, Oxiana is days away from starting construction of its 80 percent-owned, 60,000 ton a year copper mine at Sepo. Not one given to understatement, Hegarty said the copper material at the mine was “so good you could almost eat it”.

The mine’s $200 million capital bill would be funded mostly through project finance and would start producing its first copper cathode by the first quarter of 2005. Production costs at the mine are forecast at ¢37/lb, well below the current copper price of about ¢80/lb.

Hegarty said once the copper project had ramped up, Oxiana would have revenue of A$80 million from gold and A$60 million from copper