Australia`s Oxiana says Indonesian Martabe gold mine may produce 250,000 oz/year

Sydney (ANTARA News) - The Martabe gold project in the Indonesian province of North Sumatra, which Oxiana Resources Ltd acquired through its offer of 400 mln aud per share for Australian-listed Agincourt Resources, has the potential to produce 250,000 ounces of gold per year for at least nine years, Oxiana said.

The miner of gold and base metals said in its production and exploration report for the first quarter of this year that the project also had the potential to produce about 2 mln ounces of silver annually.

It said a bankable feasibility study is expected to be completed this year. So far, the indications are that there 6 mln ounces of gold and 60 mln ounces of silver at Martabe.

The senior management of the Martabe project was in place, Oxiana told XFN Asia.

The company also said the development of its 775 mln-aud Prominent Hill copper and gold project in South Australia had continued on schedule and on budget in the first quarter. In envisions the mining of the first ore early next year and production of the first commercial concentrates in the third quarter of next year.

Oxiana expects the mine to produce 115,000 ounces of gold per year over its lifetime, and 104,000 tons of copper annually in the first four years.

It intends to sell the high quality copper-gold concentrate to smelters in Asia and Australia.

Oxiana said exploratory drilling in the first quarter had confirmed that mineralization continued below the resource now being developed.