PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Copper miner Aditya Birla has reported an after-tax net loss of A$219.7-million during the full year ended March, compared with a loss of A$224 000 reported in the previous financial year.
The significant loss was ascribed to the halting of operations at the Nifty copper project, in Western Australia, where a sink hole was discovered in March 2014.
A prohibition order was issued, suspending all mining operations at the mine while an investigation was undertaken. Operations only resumed in July 2014, and an amended production schedule was derived along with additional managing and monitoring systems for the sinkhole.
Aditya Birla has previously said that the sinkhole wiped some 6.6-million tonnes of mineral resource from Nifty’s total resource. As a result, concentrate production for the full year declined from 44 565 t to 12 698 t.
The miner on Thursday told its shareholders that the halt in operations resulted in an 80% decline in sales, with copper sales declining to 9 338 t, from 46 029 t sold in 2014.
Sales revenue during the full year also declined by 82%, with only A$57.1-million in profits reporting during the full year, compared with the A$315.4-million recorded in the previous financial year.