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Birla Nifty Copper OperationOverviewAditya Birla Minerals’ principal asset is the Birla Nifty Copper Operation (BNCO), located in the Great Sandy Desert Region of the East Pilbara in Western Australia, approximately 1,250 km north of Perth and 350 km east of Port Hedland. BNCO comprises an historical open pit oxide mine with associated SX–EW processing operations, and an underground sulphide mine with an associated concentrator. Site infrastructure (powerhouse, camp, airfield, tailings storage facility) supports both the oxide and sulphide operations. A concentrate storage facility is located at Port Hedland where the concentrate is shipped to overseas customers.
Figure: Surface layout of the Nifty operation BackgroundOxide copper was first discovered at Nifty in 1981 by WMC Limited. Drilling of the oxide resource ultimately lead to the discovery of the deep sulphide resource in 1983. WMC commenced an open pit, heap leach, SX–EW operation on the relatively high grade part of the oxide mineralisation in 1993. The Nifty operation was purchased by Straits Resources Limited in 1998, and then acquired by Aditya Birla Minerals Limited in March 2003. Following the completion of a positive feasibility study, underground development was commenced in January 2004 to exploit the sulphide resource. GeologyThe Nifty copper deposit is located in the richly mineralised Paterson province, which also hosts the Telfer gold–copper mine, located some 70 km east of Nifty, and lies within a southeast trending synclinal structure plunging gently to the east.
Figure: Geological cross section of the Nifty operations Nifty ore reserves and mineral resources as on 31 March 2009 are shown below.
Notes
The Nifty Sulphide Operation contains estimated underground sulphide ore reserves of approximately 491 kt of copper, with estimated ore reserves of approximately 77 kt defined within the Nifty open pit. The open pit operation exploited oxide, transitional and chalcocite mineral resources from which copper cathode was recovered via a heap leach and SX–EW method. The oxide circuit is capable of producing approximately 25 ktpa of copper cathode. Open pit mining operations have ceased. The SX/EW operations were placed on care and maintenance in early 2009 in response to the declining copper price at the time. Based on its current reserve, the Nifty Sulphide Operation has an expected mine life of 8 years at an average LOM production rate of approximately 60 ktpa using conventional mining and processing methods. The Nifty Sulphide Operation, which accesses the Nifty sulphide deposit via a decline located immediately north of the open pit, mines chalcopyrite ore treated by standard flotation to produce copper in concentrate. Metallurgical recovery of 93% copper to copper in concentrate with a grade of 25% copper is being achieved. Ore production from stoping and concentrate production commenced in December 2005 and March 2006 respectively. The underground mine has a capacity of 2.0-2.2 mtpa and the concentrator plant has a capacity of 2.0-2.3 mtpa. Concentrate produced is trucked to Port Hedland for shipping to Hindalco Copper’s Dahej smelting and refining facility in India. Copper in concentrate produced is sold to Hindalco under a LOM off–take agreement based on arm’s length terms. At a LOM production capacity of approximately 60 ktpa, the Nifty Sulphide Operation is one of the largest underground copper mines to be commissioned worldwide this decade.
Figure: Nifty Sulphide Operation concentrator |
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