| Name | Prominent Hill |
| Location | Located 650 kilometres north-west of Adelaide, 130 kilometres north-west of BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam and 130 kilometres south-east of the town of Coober Pedy in the Gawler Craton of South Australia. |
| Product | Copper concentrate |
| Mining method | Open pit |
| Processing method | Conventional crushing, grinding and flotation |
| First Production | February 2009 |
| Production Forecast 2009 | 85,000 – 100,000 tonnes of contained copper and 60,000 – 70,000 ounces of gold |
| Reserves* | 0.95 million tonnes copper, 1.4 million ounces gold |
| Resources* | 2.5 million tonnes copper, 7.4 million ounces gold |
| Sales | Concentrates will be transported to major smelters in Asia and customers in Asia and Australia. |
| Workforce | Over 480 |
| * As at 30 June 2008 (see OZ Minerals ASX Release 23 December 2008 for full statement of Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves) | |
| ** Includes all employees (full-time, part-time and casual) and contractors as at 31 December 2008 | |
Prominent Hill is the first copper (gold) mine to move into production in Australia in more than two years with first production achieved in early 2009. The operation is located in the Gawler Craton of South Australia and approximately 130 kilometres south-east of the town of Coober Pedy.
Operations
The Prominent Hill copper-gold mine was brought into operation in February 2009. Prominent Hill has been a major focus for the company with construction ongoing over the past two years. The Prominent Hill operation is comprised of an open pit mine, conventional grinding and flotation processing plant with an 8 mtpa capacity, a permanent village and a haulage road, power line and bore field.
Prominent Hill concentrates will travel directly to customers including smelters in China and India, via the Adelaide to Darwin railway to the Port of Darwin. Concentrates will also be transported by road to local customers.
First production of Prominent Hill copper concentrates occurred in February 2009. Production for 2009 is planned to be 85,000 – 95,000 tonnes of contained copper and 55,000 – 65,000 ounces of gold.
Exploration
Work to define extensions to the Prominent Hill orebody continues. In September 2008 OZ Minerals announced an increase in its global resource base for the project with contained copper increasing by 35 per cent to 2.5 million tonnes, contained gold by 100 per cent to 7.4 million ounces and contained silver increasing by 43 per cent to 22.6 million ounces.
The Prominent Hill deposit remains open in most directions, and intensive drilling continued to extend known mineralisation and discover new zones, such as the Western Copper Zone, approximately one kilometre west of the open pit. Excellent high grade infill drilling results at the end of 2008 have lifted the level of confidence in the Western Copper Zone and illustrate the potential upside still to be realised. This new deposit is still open in all directions and is now supported by mine infrastructure.
Intensive ongoing exploration within the large land holdings (4,175 square kilometres) around the Prominent Hill mine development has been targeting additional iron-oxide copper-gold systems within trucking distance of the Prominent Hill processing plant.
