Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Copper miner Aditya Birla this week announced that the 2014 sinkhole, which halted production from its Nifty operation, in Western Australia, had wiped some 6.6-million tonnes of mineral resource from the project’s total resource.
Mining operations were suspended in March last year following the discovery of a sinkhole, with the copper miner only restarting operations in July 2014.
In its latest resource upgrade for the Nifty project, Aditya reported that the project was now estimated to host an oxide resource of some 4.33-million tonnes of ore, grading 0.87% copper, at a cutoff grade of 0.4%.
The project’s heap leach copper pad was reported to host a further 3.31-million tonnes, at 0.73% copper.
In total, the Nifty operation was estimated to have a measured, indicated and inferred resource of 33.96-million tonnes, grading 1.82% copper.
Aditya earlier this year lowered its production guidance for the full year to March to between 12 700 t and 13 500 t, following the failure of the semi-autogenous grinding mill gearbox output shaft, and the replacement of the motor and gearbox; a heavy rain event; and the failure of a gas turbine voltage regulator.