OZ Minerals today announced it has received an extension to the refinancing date for debt facilities A and B to 27th February 2009.

Societe Generale has also extended the repayment date for facility C to 27th February. Both extensions are subject to confidential conditions.

The lenders to facility A have agreed to seek internal approvals to provide a short term bridge loan facility and have been requested to respond by 9 January. As at 23 December, OZ Minerals cash balance was A$169.2m.

The company has received a number of expressions of interest for selected assets including for a majority stake in Prominent Hill and expects to make further progress on asset sales during January.

An extension to the suspension of trading in OZ Minerals shares to February 27th has been granted by the ASX as OZ continues to negotiate the refinancing.

Please find ASX announcements detailing the share suspension extension and the debt refinancing updates below:

http://www.ozminerals.com/Media/docs/ASX_20081230_RequestforVoluntarySuspension.pdf-a813f7f6-3759-44f8-8c5a-859d886972c0-0.pdf

http://www.ozminerals.com/Media/docs/ASX_20081230_RefinancingDatesExtended.pdf-7d09368f-2245-4015-b0b6-197a6c26199a-0.pdf