UPDATE 1-Australia's OZ Minerals eases out CEO, seeks partner for new mine

* OZ Minerals books underlying loss of $62.5 mln

* Seeks new CEO within the next 12 months

* Cash pile nearly halves to A$364 mln

* Shares jump 13 pct to four-month high

(Adds analyst, OZ Minerals comments)

SYDNEY, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Australia's OZ Minerals , under pressure as its main copper mine declines, is on the hunt for a new boss and seeking a partner for its key growth project, it said on Wednesday, after reporting a loss for 2013.

The copper and gold miner's battered shares jumped more than 13 percent to a four-month high after the announcement.

OZ Minerals said it aimed to replace Chief Executive Terry Burgess within the next year. Burgess has been under fire for allowing a cash pile to dwindle while looking for acquisitions to offset sliding output from its Prominent Hill mine.

"The way I read the (positive) market reaction is as a 'clearing of the decks'," said Evan Lucas, market strategist at broker IG Markets.

OZ reported an underlying loss of A$62.5 million ($56.5 million) for the full year, down from an underlying profit of A$152 million a year earlier, although the loss was narrower than the around A$77 million figure expected by analysts.

At the bottom line the company reported a loss of A$294.4 million, marred by a writedown on Prominent Hill, its one producing mine, taken at the half-year.

OZ is weighing whether to develop the Carapateena copper mine while it also looks for producing mines to buy with its A$364 million in cash to boost output. The cash pile has nearly halved from last year due to weaker commodity prices and output, and spending to shore up production at Prominent Hill.

The miner conceded on Wednesday it may bring in partners to help fund development of Carapateena.

"Preparatory work has begun to introduce other participants to the project following completion of the pre-feasibility study," OZ Minerals said.

OZ said it expects to produce 75,000 to 80,000 tonnes of copper and 130,000 to 140,000 ounces of gold at Prominent Hill in 2014, up from 2013.

Shares in OZ Minerals jumped to a high of A$3.84 after the announcement and last traded up 11 percent at A$3.78, outpacing a 0.4 percent rise in the broader market.

($1 = 1.1072 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Sonali Paul, Maggie Lu Yueyang and Thuy Ong; Editing by Paul Tait and Richard Pullin)

((maggie.luyueyang@thomsonreuters.com)(+61 2 93731819)(Reuters Messaging: maggie.luyueyang.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: AUSTRALIA OZMINERALS/