Prominent Hill Mine

The Prominent Hill Mine is a major copper, silver and gold mine in north west South Australia, 130 km south-east of Coober Pedy, which has been developed by Oxiana Limited, later to become OZ Minerals. The deposit is an iron oxide copper gold style mineralisation.The mine has cost A$1.15 billion to develop, and it is projected to produce 100,000 tonnes of copper and 115,000 oz of gold in concentrates a year.HistoryOxiana Limited decided to develop the mine in August 2006, having first got involved in the project in 2003 and having bought its partner, Minotaur Exploration Limited in 2005.The mine went into production in February 2009. The mine was opened in May 2009 by South Australian Premier Mike Rann. The development includes an open-pit mine, a conventional grinding and flotation processing plant, construction of a permanent village to accommodate the workforce and construction of a haulage road, power line and bore field. Studies for underground development are underway.Resources of the deposit are 152.8 Mt at 1.18% Cu, 0.48 g/t Au and 2.92 g/t Ag plus 38.3 Mt at 1.17 g/t Au of non-sulfide ore.In contrast to the Olympic Dam deposit, an iron oxide copper gold deposit of similar age about 200 km to the southeast of Prominent Hill, uranium values do not exceed 150 ppm and therefore uranium recovery is not economical.