Oz Minerals (ASX:OZL) hopes to create 250 new jobs at its Prominent Hill operation now that the new federal mining law does not affect copper ore.
Prominent Hill is a open cut copper and gold mine. The underground expansion plans for the project were put on hold in May due to the proposed Resources Super Tax or RSPT.
The Managing Director of Oz Minerals Mr. Terry Burgess said that the scrapping of the RSPT and the new changes to the mining tax made it conducive to think about the expansion in the South Australian mine. He said that they were very pleased when the announcement was made that the tax didn't apply to copper operations.
He was also happy that the copper grades processed during the current quarter were lower than previous quarters, although the throughput was higher and recoveries were better than expected for Oz Minerals.
Prominent Hill is the only active asset with Oz Minerals as of now after it sold key assets to a Chinese company last year.