Fluor strikes copper and gold

Fluor Corporation has been awarded $462m to provide project management, engineering and procurement services for a $598m copper-gold project for Oxiana Limited in South Australia.

Oxiana's Board of Directors formally approved development of the Prominent Hill copper-gold project on August 25, 2006. The copper-gold deposit was discovered in 2001 by Adelaide-based Mintaur Exploration.

During the expansion, Fluor's construction management organization will require an average of 400 workers with up to 1,000 workers at peak periods. Project work will be executed out of Fluor's offices in Perth and Adelaide, Australia.

The project includes development of an open-pit mine, a conventional grinding and flotation processing plant with an eight million ton per annum capacity, construction of a permanent village to accommodate a 400 person workforce and construction of a haul road, power lines, airfield and bore field.

First commercial production of copper-gold concentrates is slated for third quarter of 2008.