Mt Gordon project to be placed on care and maintenance
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – India’s Aditya Birla Minerals would be placing its Mt Gordon copper project, in north-west Queensland, on care and maintenance by the end of April this year.
The miner said on Wednesday that when the decision was taken to restart Mt Gordon in January 2011, the prevailing copper price was around $9 600/t, which had now decreased to around $7 700/t.
Furthermore, there were uncertainties regarding the economic conditions in Europe and the slowdown of the Chinese housing market.
Additionally, the performance at the Mt Gordon operation has been lower than expected, said Aditya Birla, adding that, at current production rates, the unit operating cost per pound had become unacceptably high, which was adversely impacting on the profitability of the operation and the company as a whole.
Aditya Birla was currently conducting a strategic review of the Mt Gordon operation after a scoping study in February noted the opportunity to transform the project into a high-output operation with lower per-unit operating costs by converting the present open-stope trucking haulage method into a sublevel caving hoist shaft haulage method.
The company’s directors have decided not to deplete the existing high-grade resources at the current high unit costs, and after examining its various options, have decided to place the operation on care and maintenance to save between A$12-million and A$15-million from existing Mt Gordon operations.
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