Some rare good news amid all the downgrades and fears about the impact of the China virus crisis – copper and gold miner Oz Minerals says its plans to ramp up copper and gold output at its new Carrapateena mine in South Australia remain on track after production began on schedule in December.
The miner produced its first saleable copper-gold concentrate at Carrapateena last month and told the ASX yesterday that it still expects output will reach an annual rate of 4.25 million tonnes of ore by the end of this year and up to 5 million tonnes a year by the end of 2023.
The mine is expected to provide 20,000 to 25,000 tonnes of copper in 2020 and 35,000 to 40,000 ounces of gold, according to OZ’s guidance.
The company also expects higher volumes or copper and gold ore and concentrates from its established Prominent Hill mine which is also in South Australia.
Copper production for 2020 should be 83,000 to 100,000 tonnes, while gold should be 207,000 to 234,000 ounces.
If that’s achieved and gold prices remain where they are above $US1500 an ounce, then OZ will have a very good year, even if copper remains weak (it’s currently around $US2.58 a pound and weak because of the Chinese coronavirus crisis fears on demand).
The miner produced 28,659 tonnes of copper and 36,808 ounces of gold in the December quarter.
For 2019 as a whole copper production was 109, 289, at the top of the year’s guidance of 101,000 to 110,500 tonnes. Gold production was 128,874 ounces against a range of 120,400 to 130,800.
The results were within guidance levels for 2019.
Revenue for the December 31, 2019, financial year was $1.107 billion, down slightly from $1.115 billion in 2018.
The company had a closing cash balance of $134 million (unaudited) after year of substantial growth investment. That was down from a closing balance at December 31, 2018 of $505 million. The run down was caused by the development costs at Carapateena
OZ shares rose 2.8% to $10.06 as those fears about the impact of the coronavirus eased.
