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OZ in no rush to spend

OZ Minerals is in no hurry to spend its now substantial cash reserves, new chief executive Terry Burgess told journalists at the Diggers and Dealers conference.

According to Burgess, who officially started with OZ Minerals on Monday, the company must not act too hastily in its spending.

“We have a healthy cash balance and I think it is very important for me to say this is not going to burn a hole in our pocket,” he said.

“We are certainly in no hurry to do anything.”

OZ Minerals has a cash reserve of US$800 million after debt refinancing issues forced a sell-off of most of its assets to China Minmetals Non-ferrous Metals Co.

The sole operation still in OZ minerals’ possession is the Prominent Hill mine in South Australia.

Burgess said that the company will take a measured approach and will not spend money simply for the sake of it.

“If we still have all the money left in a year’s time, it means we must have done a lot of studies and not found anything that is worth doing,” he said.

“It is so important to make sure we do not spend money on the wrong asset.”

Output from the $1.2 billion Prominent Hill project begun in February this year and OZ Minerals has forecast production of as much as 100,000 metric tonnes of copper and 70,000 ounces of gold this year.

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