Just to give us a little bit of reassurance...This is from the...

Just to give us a little bit of reassurance...
This is from the Advertiser today.


RUSSELL EMMERSON
September 04, 2007 11:00am
PROGRESS at Oxiana's Prominent Hill site is measured either in millions of tonnes or in metres.

The company initially estimated copper reserves of 1.5 million tonnes and 2.6 million ounces of gold but last month announced its "open-at-depth'' drilling results may double the site's resources.

The fact that most of it is only 100m underground is of some comfort to the geologists who jokingly named the site in honour of the lack of distinguishing feature other than red dirt and dusty bussocks.

Progress in metres is a simple measure of how deep the open-cut pit is. In July, it was 65m deep.
One year after board approval was given for the project, Oxiana has reached 71m.

For a hole that is currently 400m wide and 600m long - and will eventually measure almost 1.5km in both directions - every metre counts.

Mining contractor Thiess is removing 85,000 cubic metres every day in a 24-hour operation as part of its six-year project to mine the site, mining manager Andy Haslam said. ``We dig it, drive it (and) bust it,'' he said.

"There are four phases to the project. This first one will end March 30, 2008, and by then we will have removed 46 million cubic metres. "

"In each phase we have to meet material movement schedules. We are two months in front so we are fairly solid at the moment.''

The foundations for the plant have been poured and half of the crusher - currently 20m tall - has been completed and is expected to begin churning on schedule in the second quarter of 2008.

Thiess is a division of project management group Leighton Holdings and contributes about $4 billion in turnover in mining and construction services.

The $800 million Prominent Hill contract is a key contract that may support future tenders for larger mining projects, Mr Haslam said.

"Oxiana has been a good client to us - up to 10 per cent - and we want that to continue,'' he said.
``We think SA is a growing market and we want to position ourselves to do more in the region.''

While Prominent Hill is yet to be commissioned, it is being held up as the poster-mine for Oxiana's 4175 sq km tenement.

Oxiana's general manager for the project Mick Wilkes described the geology in glowing terms, likening it to the best of the Gawler Craton, BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam mine and the growing aura of the Carapateena prospect.

"It is largely unexplored because it is under 100m of rock,'' he said.

"There is so much more exploration to be done here; there are bound to be more Prominent Hills,'' Mr Wilkes, said.

"We have 13 targets - not all of them will be a Prominent Hill, but there is a good chance. We intend to be here for a very long time.''

If there is a lot of pride in the project, there is also a lot riding on it. Oxiana's vision is to "build a major mining company'', moving from a consolidated mid-tier miner and into the lofty heights occupied by BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

One marker of that success is market capitalisation.

The company was yesterday valued at $5.2 billion with a share price of $3.35.

But Oxiana is aiming for a $10 billion market capitalisation, equating to a share price of $6.44.
That cannot be achieved solely from success at Prominent Hill.

The company has significant operations in Western Australia and in Laos to draw it along - but there is no doubt that the company is looking forward to the Gawler Craton's red dust to be turned into something wonderful.

* Russell Emmerson visited Prominent Hill as a guest of Oxiana

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22360300-5003680,00.html


Cheers

Commy

P.S OXR also goes ex dividend 14th sep