10 April 2006
Aditya Birla Minerals is poised to become the
fourth largest producer of copper in Australia
with the commissioning of the Nifty sulphide operation.
The production is expected to be 46 kt in FY 2006
and 106 kt in FY 2007. The Nifty sulphide operation,
with an average life of mine head grade of approximately
2.8 per cent copper, is expected to be one of
the richest underground copper operations in the
world.
Aditya Birla Minerals, a subsidiary of Hindalco,
is headquartered in Perth, Australia, and has
mining and exploration activities focused at
the Nifty copper mine in the Pilbara region,
northwest Australia, and the Mt. Gordon copper
mine in northwest Queensland, since 2003. The
company is headed by Mr. Debu Bhattacharya,
who is the non-executive chairman. Mr Sanjay
Loyalka is the chief executive officer and managing
director.
The company has also successfully completed
a conversion project of cathode to concentrate
at Mt. Gordon, which now enables the production
of copper concentrate. The copper concentrate
is used as a raw material by Hindalco, whose
requirements are expected to grow substantially
over the next few years, through a long-term
contractual agreement. Aditya Birla Minerals
will continue to benefit from being part of
Hindalco and the Aditya Birla Group. It will
have access to substantial international industry
knowledge and networks as well as advisory support
on technical, financial, risk management, legal
and human resource aspects.
Aditya Birla Minerals is well positioned for
the ongoing delivery of copper products into
the growing Asian construction, electrical and
industrial markets. The Asian region accounted
for around 42 per cent of the world's copper
consumption in 2005 and is expected to account
for around 39 per cent of global consumption
growth over the next five years.
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