PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Copper and gold production from the Prominent Hill operation, in South Australia, has exceeded expectations in 2018, ASX-listed Oz Minerals reported on Thursday.
Copper production from Prominent Hill reached 110 111 t during the full year ended December, which was higher than the guided 100 000 t to 110 000 t, while gold production for the full year reached 130 856 oz, also higher than the guidance of between 120 000 oz and 130 000 oz.
In the three months to December, the Prominent Hill operation delivered 29 482 t of copper and 40 052 oz of gold, compared with the 31 919 t of copper and 36 601 oz of gold delivered in the previous quarter.
The Antas operation delivered 2 883 t of copper in the quarter and 2 333 oz of gold, with full year production reaching 5 887 t of copper and 4 791 oz of gold.
“2018 was a strong year all round for Oz Minerals; operationally this marks the fourth year we have met or exceeded copper guidance at Prominent Hill,” said Oz Minerals CEO and MD Andrew Cole.
“From a growth prospective, we marked several milestones towards achieving our strategy of becoming a global copper focused miner. The Carrapateena project is now in peak construction, the West Musgrave project is in prefeasibility study, and a platform for growth has been established in the world-class Carajas and Gurumpi mineral provinces in Brazil.”
Cole said that in 2019, Oz Minerals' operational focus at Prominent Hill would be trained on safely achieving the ramp-up of the underground operation to between 3.7-million and 4-million tonnes.
“We will be advancing the underground expansion studies with drilling to start in the first quarter and completion of the haulage study in the third quarter, while integrating the outcomes of the Mt Woods exploration challenge.
“A gold processing trial is also planned for the first half of 2019 to assess recoveries and mill throughput, with a view to bringing forward the processing of the regular grade gold stockpile in place of the low-grade copper stockpile from 2020.”
At Carrapateena, construction and the operational efforts would be geared towards achieving operational readiness and safe commissioning in the fourth quarter. The company is also finalising the scoping study for the expansion of the Carrapateena Province with an update expected late in the first quarter.