"It"s getting bloody hard to find good deposits around the planet, so you have to start looking at this part of the world (Asia)."

Peter Lester, Oxiana corporate development executive general manager, in a presentation to the Asia Pacific Down Under Conference held in Perth recently.

"China's offshore investments will triple by 2010. The IMF is very bullish on China with 10% growth in 2006 and 10% growth in 2007. We are in our 5th year of over 4% global growth which is totally unprecedented."

Roland Randall, senior economist Macquarie Securities presenting at the Mine Exploration and Investment Asia conference held in Singapore recently.