Speaking at Diggers & Dealers this morning, Hegarty speculated that the stock’s strong performance today was the result of a combination of factors.

“One or two of the rumours are still running around about a potential takeover. We have no further information than we disclosed the other day and we are a continuous disclosure company,” he said.

“I think also we are a little behind some of the other resource companies that have had a good strong run lately, Rio and BHPB. I think that there is a response to that.

“You have also seen some very bullish statements from industry leaders in terms of longer, stronger and so on. That was the point I was trying to make this morning [in his presentation] that we do expect considerably strong demand to continue for some time.”

Hegarty conceded the company’s recent growth did however make it a prime target for a future takeover bid.

“Given the resource growth that we have had, we have got nearly 10 million ounces of gold in resource and the equivalent of 4Mt of copper, the street value of all that you can’t jump over at the moment,” he said.

“It has grown considerably but that puts you then in a category that those next level of companies will be looking at you. They have to look otherwise you say they are not doing their jobs if they don’t have a look.

“Our strategy is and we have been consistent is that we are not there to sit by the fire and wait for someone to take us over type of thing. We are out there growing the business.”

Earlier, Hegarty delivered the company presentation to a packed auditorium in Kalgoorlie, outlining an ambitious plan to increase both gold and copper production from Sepon (in Laos), Prominent Hill and the newly acquired Golden Grove.

Hegarty said the company has a four-year plan to be producing 500,000 ounces per annum of gold and 300,000 tonnes per annum of copper – largely driven by the Sepon.

Copper production from Sepon is currently being ramped up to capacity of 60,000tpa (30,000t in 2005) of copper cathode, with Hegarty said the company was already looking at increasing that to 120,000t (and probably “something beyond that”) as well as possible concentrate output.

Hegarty also believes a gold production increase at Sepon to 350-400,000ozpa is possible within the next 2-3 years based on the current resource.

Meantime Hegarty said the company continued to see plenty of opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region for expansion, and would also look outside of the region from time to time.

Shares in Oxiana were trading up 10c (9.3%) at $1.18 in afternoon trade.