Oceana Gold has won one of Australia's top mining industry awards, the ''Digger of the Year'', at the annual Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum conference in Kalgoorlie last week.
Oceana Gold (OGC) chief executive Mick Wilkes said the company had been ''able to thrive'' despite persistently low gold prices and the need to remain cost competitive.
''Over the past three years we have made the necessary changes to our New Zealand business to ensure it continues to drive strong free cash flow despite lower gold prices,'' he said in a statement.
At the end of this month, Dunedin is hosting the New Zealand branch of the Australian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy conference, which includes presentations by OGC, Solid Energy and Bathurst Resources, Newmont, GNS Science, Dunedin's RSC Consulting, University of Otago staff and government permit agency New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals.
During the Kalgoorlie conference, Mr Wilkes detailed OGC's strong production performance from the low cost Didipio gold copper mine in the Philippines and the lower cost performance from the long established New Zealand operations, at Macraes in east Otago and Reefton on the West Coast.
Recent advances made by OGC included the Romarco Minerals takeover, the purchase of Newmont's central North Island Waihi gold operations, and a strategic investment in TSX listed Gold Standard Ventures, which holds an emerging major gold find in the Carlin gold trend of Nevada.
Mr Wilkes told the conference the Blackwater gold project, on the West Coast, was still on the development schedule but it needed some compelling new results or development concept.
While the adjacent Globe Progress mine at Reefton was to close, all the plant, equipment and buildings would be placed on care and maintenance. Significant exploration in the Reefton goldfield had not shown up significant new finds, Mr Wilkes said.
Earlier this year, OGC extended the life of its Frasers underground mine at Macraes until 2017, then, after the release of positive drilling results last month, said it hoped to extend its life by three to five years.
Additional reporting from nzresources.com
