ASX Round-Up: Oz Minerals and PanAust in the Spotlight

For investors focused on the resource space, a good way to track companies listed in Australia is to look at the S&P/ASX 300 (INDEXASX:XKO). The index includes all S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX:XJO) companies as well as about 100 smaller-cap companies, and as of April 2015 accounted for 74 percent of the Australian equities market. Specifically, the S&P/ASX 300 Metal & Mining (INDEXASX:XMM) division is a great source for companies to watch.
The Investing News Network is thus profiling companies on the S&P/ASX 300 Metal & Mining index. This week’s companies are Oz Minerals (ASX:OZL) and PanAust (ASX:PNA).

Oz Minerals owns the Prominent Hill copper–gold mine and Carrapateena copper-gold exploration project, both of which are located in South Australia. Prominent Hill began operating in 2009 and now produces over 100,000 tonnes of copper annually.
In November, the company released its annual resources and reserves update for Prominent Hill; both remain strong, with most of the changes due to mining depletion. As of June 30, mineral resources were an estimated 152 million tonnes of copper-gold mineralization grading 1.2 percent copper, 0.6 g/t gold, 2.8 g/t silver and 27 million tonnes of gold-only mineralization grading 1.3 g/t gold and 1.5 g/t silver.

PanAust is a copper and gold producer in Laos, and also has pre-development opportunities in Laos, Papua New Guinea and Chile. Its two producing operations are the Phu Kham copper-gold operation and the Ban Houayxai gold-silver operation.
In November, the company released its third-quarter report; it points to year-to-date production of 56,588 tonnes of copper, 157,279 ounces of gold in concentrate and doré as well as 1,206,245 ounces of silver in concentrate and doré. These production numbers put PanAust on track to achieve its production targets for the year — those are: 74,000 to 76,000 tonnes of copper, 195,000 to 205,000 ounces gold and 1.4 million to 1.5 million ounces of silver.
The company also said in the report that the feasibility study for its Frieda River project remains on track for submission to the government of Papua New Guinea in early 2016.
 
Securities Disclosure: I, Kristen Moran, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article. 
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