OZ Minerals’ late-April announcements came about one month after the Australian government withheld approval of a proposed outright purchase of the company by Minmetals for $1.7 billion in cash (E&MJ, March 2009, p. 14). The government said it would not approve any Minmetals transaction that included the Prominent Hill mine, because the mine is located in South Australia’s Woomera Prohibited Area, a weapons-testing range.

Under the approved transaction, Minmetals will purchase OZ’s Sepon copper- gold operations in Laos; its Golden Grove, Century, Rosebery, and Avebury mines and Dugald River development project in Australia; its High Lake and Izok Lake development projects in Canada; and certain other exploration and development assets for $1.206 billion. The separate sale of the Martabe project to China Sci- Tech is valued at $211 million in cash.

China Sci-Tech is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Purchase of the Martabe project is its initial entry into mining as a project developer.

Following receipt of government approval of the revised Minmetals transaction, Andrew Michelmore, managing director and CEO of OZ Minerals, said “OZ Minerals is one critical step closer to implementing the proposed transaction with Minmetals and resolving its refinancing issues. At completion of the transaction, OZ Minerals will continue to own the newly-producing Prominent Hill coppergold mine in South Australia and other prospective assets and will have net cash on the balance sheet to enable it to develop into the future.”

The Prominent Hill mine shipped its first copper-gold concentrates by rail to the port of Darwin in early April. On-going deliveries to the port are scheduled at 600 mt/d of concentrates, six days per week. From Darwin, the concentrates are being shipped to smelters across Asia. The mine was producing at about 80% of design capacity of 100,000 mt/y of copper in concentrates as of early April and was expected to reach design capacity by year-end.