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coPPeR sPotLIGHt

Oz gleams with

opportunity

trong price tailwinds have Oz Miner- While those figures, particularly gold
Sals Ltd increasingly confident it is on production and AISC, were down on the
the cusp of a company-defining period. previous four quarters, Cole said the
Oz’s market value has grown 165% company remained confident of deliver-
in the last three years thanks to strong ing on forecasts.
performance at its Prominent Hill copper “It was a good start to the calendar
mine, smooth development and ramp-up year; costs were tight and the project
of its second South Australian asset, the timeline was maintained and Prominent
Carrapateena copper project, and con- Hill is on track to deliver on guidance,” he
tinued production from its Carajas cop- said. “We expect copper production to in-
per assets in Brazil. crease over the year as Prominent Hill’s
The roll-out of Carrapateena means bottom-up mining approach starts, and
Oz is set to produce 160,000t copper we resolve the short-term mobile plant
equivalent in FY2021 but managing di- availability at Carrapateena.
rector Andrew Cole has his sights set on “A strong Australian dollar and lower
much larger volumes. gold production [a result of moving to
The company is currently consider- lower-grade gold stockpiles] did impact
ing an expansion to Prominent Hill which AISC but operating costs are well con-
will lift capacity from 4 mtpa to 6 mtpa as trolled.”
well as implementing a block cave mining The company had $114 million in cash
method at Carrapateena which will even- at the end of the period, despite investing
tually see throughput expanded from 4.25 $82 million on projects. With the copper
mtpa to 12 mtpa. Further along the pipe- price surging to decade highs, Oz could
line is the 12 mtpa West Musgrave nickel- build the war chest it will need to fund its
copper project in Western Australia. ambitious plans.
“With the Carrapateena block cave pro- A November 2020 scoping study esti-
ject approved, and assuming the Promi- mated $450 million would be needed to
nent Hill expansion and West Musgrave build a hoisting shaft at Prominent Hill
[nickel-copper] projects are approved this which would allow expansion to 6 mtpa
year and in 2022 respectively, that figure and reduce site operating costs by $10-
could double once they are all operating. 15/t.
It is therefore a transformative period for At Carrapateena, a June 2020 PFS
the company,” Cole said in the March priced implementation of block caving
quarterly conference call. and subsequent processing expansion
In the longer term, Oz hopes to add fur- from 4.25 mtpa to 12 mtpa at $1.2-1.3 bil-
ther options to its development plan. lion.
“We are looking at more exploration Meanwhile, a December 2020 PFS up-
projects to strengthen the pipeline and date for West Musgrave came with a $1.1
will continue to expand exploration,” Cole billion price tag.
said. “We continue to look at alternative AISC increased in the quarter as a
approaches and will continue to add pro- result of the gold price but [with] the
jects. Our approach is to look for copper- bottom-up as well as top-down mining
rich provinces where there is existing or method now running, mining rates will be
initial investment which can serve as a increased to 5 mtpa and potential to ex-
launching platform or hub for other op- pand with shaft hoisting.
portunities.” Cole said he wasn’t concerned by the
That Oz will be able to make the trans- size and complexity of the pipeline in
formation from a solid base has become front of Oz with all three projects requir-
increasingly clear over recent report- ing different sequencing.
ing periods. The March quarter saw the “The next three years for the block
company produce 26,842t copper and cave [at Carrapateena] are effectively
55,150oz gold at AISC of $US1.36/lb decline development so it is continuing
across Prominent Hill, Carrapateena and the main access declines to the bottom
Carajas. of the block cave design level,” he ex-

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