Nifty

The Nifty copper mine is located around 1,250 kilometres north of Perth in the Great Sandy Desert Region of the eastern Pilbra in Western Australia. It is situated 350 kilometres by road from Port Hedland, from where it exports its concentrate out of Australia, to Hindalco Copper's Dahej smelting and refining plant in India. The Nifty mining operations is owned by the Aditya Birla Group, that comprises Indian Company, Hindalco Industries Limited and Aditya Birla Minerals, that is based in Perth.

The Nifty Mine Includes the Historic Open pit and the Operational Underground Mine
The Nifty copper mine consists of two mines, the open pit copper oxide mine that ceased mining in 2006 and an operating underground copper sulphide mine, along with infrastructure that includes a tailings storage dams, an all weather airstrip, a 462 room mine workers camp and two power generating plants, one a gas operated generator that produces 24 MW and the other a diesel generator that generates 4 MW as well as the concentrator plant that is associated with the open pit mine. The company also owns a concentrator storage facility at Port Hedland where the concentrate is stored while awaiting shipping overseas. The mine produces around 2.3 million tonnes of copper a year that is processed through its concentrator plant that is capable of handling 2.5 million tonnes annually.

Nifty Open pit Closed in 2006
Following the closure of the Nifty open pit mine in 2006, heap leaching continued at the site until January 2009. The heap leaching re-treatment recovered around 40,000 tonnes of copper from the existing heap pads. Further recovery was cancelled owing to a subdued economic environment.

Nifty Underground Accessed by a Decline Leading From the Open pit
The Nifty underground sulphide deposit is accessed by means of a decline that is situated directly north of the open pit mine. The ore removed from the mine is subjected to the conventional flotation method in order to produce copper concentrate. The concentrate is then trucked the 350 kilometres to Port Hedland to await export.

Plans to Expand the Nifty Mine
Looking to the future, plans for the Nifty copper mine include the expansion of the reserve and resource base to extend the life of the mine and to increase mine throughput from 2.3 million tonnes a year to 2.7 million tonnes by the end of 2014.

Nifty Mine is the World's Largest Underground Mine to Commissioned in the Last Decade
Nifty copper mine owner Aditya Birla Minerals is a company primarily involved in mineral reserve delineation drilling and mine development, it also holds extensive exploration tenements and has plans to increase its copper exploration into the future. The Nifty underground copper sulphide mine is one of the largest in the world to be commissioned in the last 10 years.

Hindalco, that holds 51 percent ownership of Aditya Birla Minerals, shares this ownership with JPMorgan (Institutional Group), Langely Alexander Walker, Black Rock Advisors (Institutional Group), Old Mutual (Institutional Group), DFA Australia Limited, Paradise Investment Management Pty Ltd and LSV Asset Management. Hindalco itself both owns and operates a copper and smelting refinery at Dahej, India that was commissioned in 1998. The refinery has a capacity to produce 500
kilotonnes of copper a year.

Both Aditya Birla Minerals and Hindalco are members of the Aditya Birla Group that is one of India's largest businesses that specialises in copper production and exploration. The Australian interest, Aditya Birla Minerals, was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2006.
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