seeks buyer for mt gordon mine

Jul 2, 2013
Asia

Aditya Birla Minerals Seeks Buyer For Mt Gordon Mine


By Gillian Tan
Australia-listed Aditya Birla Minerals is seeking a buyer for a copper mine in the nation’s Queensland state, which could fetch around 250 million Australian dollars (US$228 million), according to a flyer obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

First-round bids are due later in July for the Mt Gordon Copper Project, where operations were suspended in April due to the industrial metal’s softening price. The project is forecast to produce 4 million tons per annum for nine years with a total mine life of 16 years, at an average copper grade of 1.4%. That figure was boosted by a drilling project in 2012 which lifted its copper inventory by 58%.

Aditya Birla Minerals, 51%-owned by Hindalco Industries Ltd., a subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Aditya Birla Group, said in February that it had appointed ANZ Banking Group’s corporate advisory division to undertake a strategic review of Mt Gordon, which included examining all options available.

Mt Gordon is on the same resource-rich belt as Glencore Xstrata’s Mount Isa and Ernest Henry copper mines and CST Mining Group Ltd.’s Lady Annie copper mine.

Potential buyers of Australian-owned copper assets are currently faced with a range of opportunities, due to the commodity’s unloved status. In late June, copper futures fell to their lowest level in almost three years as stockpiles hit a fresh decade high, bolstering the view that supply is outstripping demand.

Rio Tinto PLC is selling its Northparkes copper-and-gold mine in New South Wales state as well as its 57% stake in copper-and-gold producer Ivanhoe Australia Ltd, while Australia-listed Discovery Metals Ltd., which owns a key project in Botswana, has put itself up for sale.

The transactions follow the sale by Australia’s largest miner BHP Billiton Ltd. of its Pinto Valley copper mine for US$650 million to Canada’s Capstone Mining Corporation in April.

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/07/02/aditya-birla-minerals-seeks-buyer-for-mt-gordon-mine/