Aditya Birla Minerals, owned by the Aditya Birla group, is in talks with a potential buyer to sell its Mt Gordon copper mine in Australia.
After putting the mine operations under ‘care and maintenance’ for the last 18 months, the company has said it has already started negotiations with a ‘third party’ for sale.
Aditya Birla Minerals, a copper mining company located in Australia, has operations in Western Australia and Queensland.
The company conducts copper mining and exploration activities at the Nifty Copper Operation in Western Australia and the Mt Gordon Copper Operations, near Mt Isa in Queensland.
“As part of the strategic review of the company’s Mt Gordon operations, the management is now in negotiations with a third party for the potential disinvestment of 100 per cent shares in Birla Mt Gordon,” the company said in a filing to the Australian Stock Exchange.
Negotiations “These negotiations may or may not conclude successfully, however the market will be informed appropriately if the board takes any decision to enter into a binding sale agreement,” it added.
The Mt Gordon operation, located in north-west Queensland, about 120 km north of Mt Isa, was set up to produce copper in concentrate at an annualised rate of about 1.4 million tonnes per annum of ore processing.
The company did not undertake any field exploration on Mt Grodon since April, 2013. It recently held discussions with the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines, and a plan for rationalisation of current granted regional tenure was under preparation for submission to the authority.
Copper concentrates from Aditya Birla Minerals’ copper mines are shipped to Hindalco Industries’ copper smelter in India. Hindalco has 51 per cent shareholding in Aditya Birla Minerals.
The company recommenced mining operations and production from the Nifty mine during the July-September quarter after a prohibition notice was issued by the Department of Mines and Petroleum subsequent to a sinkhole incident in March, 2014.
Copper production and sales of the company during the quarter ended September, 2014 decreased by 80 per cent and 98 per cent, respectively, during the quarter ended September 30, 2014 compared to the corresponding quarter last year, due to no production till last week of August.
