AB Minerals halts operations at Mt Gordon for maintenance

Aditya Birla Minerals today decided to halt operations at its Mt Gordon copper mine in Queensland for maintenance work, which is expected to save up to Rs 84 crore for the company.

"Board of Directors has decided to place the Mt Gordon operations under care and maintenance by the end of April 2013 which is expected to result in annualised savings of approx AUD 12-15 million," it said in a filing to Australian Stock Exchange.

The maintenance work was needed as the operation cost of the mine became too high, adversely impacting profitability of the unit and the company as a whole.

"The production performance at the Mt Gordon operations has been lower than expected for various reasons. At current production rates, the unit operating cost per pound of copper produced at Mt Gordon has become unacceptably high, which is adversely impacting the profitability of the operations and the company," it said.

Mt Gordon mine is located in North-West of Queensland in Australia. It has the capacity to produce 20,000 tonnes copper concentrate annually.

"As per the scoping study results...there is an opportunity to transform Mt Gordon into a high-production operation with lower per unit operating cost by converting the present open stope tucking haulage method into a sub-level caving hoist shaft haulage method," Aditya Birla Mineral said.

The closure is also intended at preserving the existing high-grade resources at the currently high unit cost, it said.

Concentrates produced at the mine are shipped to Aditya Birla Group's India-based flagship firm Hindalco Industries' copper smelters.