Aditya Birla Minerals
Limited
ABN 37 103 515 037
Level 3
256 Adelaide Terrace Septimus Roe Square Perth
Western Australia 6000
Australia
PO Box 3074
Adelaide Terrace
Perth
Western Australia 6832
Australia
T: +61 8 9366 8800
F: +61 8 9366 8805
www.adityabirlaminerals.com.au
Aditya Birla Minerals Limited
ASX RELEASE- 22 June 2015
Nifty Underground Ore Reserve Estimate at 31st March 2015- Supplementary
Information
Aditya Birla Minerals Limited (ASX - ABY) released an announcement on 29 April 2015 titled "Birla Nifty Underground Reserve Estimate" and a Revised Update on 15 June 2015. This further clarification is provided to comply with ASX Listing Rules 5.9.2 and 5.22.
Clarification regarding ASX Listing Rule 5.9.2:
No exploration results has been released during the reporting period, however to comply with Listing rule 5.9.2, Section 2 of Table 1 of the JORC 2012 Code is attached herewith as a supplementary part of Appendix-1 to the ASX Release dated 15 June 2015.
Clarification regarding 5.22 of Listing Rule:
The Competent Person's Statement below replaces the Competent Person's Statement appearing in the ASX Release dated 15 June 2015.
Competent Person's Statement
The information in the "Birla Nifty Underground Reserve Estimate" and Section-4 of Appendix-1 is based on, and fairly represents, information and supporting documentation prepared by Mr. David Lee, Principal Mining Engineer and an employee of AMC Consultants Pty Ltd. Mr. Lee is a Fellow of Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr. Lee has sufficient experience, which is relevant to the style of mineralization and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 JORC edition of the "Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves". Mr. Lee consents to the release of this information in the form and context in which it appears.
The information in the "Birla Nifty Underground Reserve Estimate" and Section-1,2 & 3 of Appendix-1 is based on, and fairly represents, information and supporting documentation prepared by Mr. Sean Sivasamy, a full time employee of Aditya Birla Minerals Limited. Mr. Sivasamy is a Member of Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr. Sivasamy has sufficient experience, which is relevant to the style of mineralization and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 JORC edition of the "Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves". Mr. Sivasamy consents to the release of this information in the form and context in which it appears.
For Further Information
Aditya Birla Minerals Limited
Neel Patnaik - Managing Director Shanti Dugar - Chief Financial Officer Peter Torre-Company Secretary
Telephone: +61 8 9366 8800 Facsimile: +61 8 9366 8805
Email: [email protected]
Section 2 Reporting of Exploration Results
(Supplementary to appendix 1 released on 15 June 2015 and should be read after Section-1)
(Criteria listed in the preceding section also apply to this section.)
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Criteria
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Explanation
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Comments
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Mineral tenement and land tenure status
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• Type, reference name/number, location and ownership including agreements or material issues with third parties such as joint ventures, partnerships, overriding royalties, native title interests, historical sites, wilderness or national park and environmental settings.
• The security of the tenure held at the time of reporting along with any known impediments to obtaining a licence to operate in the area.
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Granted Mining Lease M271SA secures the entire mine site, including the open pits, village, plant site, power station, waste rock dumps, tailings storage facilities and bore fields.
The Nifty Mineral Resource lies in M271SA ( expires date 02/09/2034). It is located within the Proterozoic Yeneena Basin, bounded to the west by the Archaen Pilbara Craton, to the north and east by the late Carboniferous to early Permian Canning Basin and to the southeast and south by sedimentary rocks of the Officer Basin.
The Nifty Mining Operation includes the following agreements, licenses and commitments:
• Western Mining Corporation Limited (Throssell Range) Agreement Act
1985 - WA State Agreement
• WA Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) Prescribed Premises environmental operating license - groundwater monitoring, tip management, waste water treatment, emissions to air, land, and water, and annual reporting
• Department of Water abstraction licenses for 3,730,000 kL for dewatering and 75,000 kL for process and potable water
• National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER)
• National Pollution Inventory (NPI)
• Native Title does not apply to mining lease of Nifty
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Exploration done by other parties
• Acknowledgment and appraisal of exploration by other parties.
In the early 1970‟s the discovery and delineation of the Telfer Au-Cu deposit aroused a strong increase in mineral exploration in the area. Descriptions of the Paterson Province by the Geological Survey of Western Australia (Chin and Hickman, 1977) led WMC Resources Pty Ltd to develop a conceptual model for the exploration of sediment-hosted stratiform copper deposits (Haynes et al.,
1993).
Subsequent field investigations noted that the coarse-grained lithics of the Coolbro Sandstone could have acted as a favourable source rock and that the laminated dolomitic siltstone and pyritic shale of the Broadhurst Formation could have acted as a possible host for sediment-hosted stratiform copper (Haynes et
al., 1993).
In 1979, geophysical surveys, further geological mapping and systematic ironstone and outcrop lag sampling commenced near the western margin of the basin and led to the definition of a Pb-Zn-Cu target in the region of Nifty and other possible targets for stratiform Cu along the western margin of the basin (Haynes et al., 1993). Follow up geological mapping and lag sampling in 1980 confirmed the existence of a large Cu-Pb-Zn soil anomaly at Nifty and subsequent follow-up drilling intersected malachite of the secondary ore body. The discovery of anomalous Pb and Zn associated with a distinctive pyritic marker bed and deeper chalcopyrite of the primary mineralisation occurred in May 1982 (Haynes et al., 1993).
A programme of resource definition drilling was conducted which defined a deposit comprising a secondary oxide resource of 12.2 Mt @ 2.52% Cu and a primary sulphide ore body of 94Mt @1.63% Cu (0.5% cut-off). Open pit mining operations of the secondary oxide ore body began in 1992.
The operation was acquired by Straits Resources Ltd in 1998 who on-sold it to Birla in 2003. Birla continued to mine oxide mineralisation until 2006, processing oxide material until 2008. The underground development commenced 2004 and the underground mining commenced in FY-06. The Sulphide mineral resources
as at September 2003 were 29.3 million tonnes at 3.16% copper cut-off grade of
1.5% Cu.
Geology • Deposit type, geological setting and style of mineralisation.
The Nifty Cu deposit is located within the Paterson Province of the eastern Pilbara, which also contains the Telfer Au and Maroochydore Cu-Co deposits. It is located within the Yeneena Basin, bounded to the west by the Archaen Pilbara Craton, to the north and east by the late Carboniferous to early Permian Canning Basin and to the southeast and south by sedimentary rocks of the Officer Basin.
The initial exploration in the Paterson Orogen applied a conceptual model for stratiform copper deposits developed by WMC Resources Ltd. This model and Nifty's subsequent discovery have influenced its stratigraphic interpretation. Haynes et al. (1993) suggested that the source rocks were likely to be red coarse- grained basal clastic sediments deposited during the rift phase of basin development and in the Paterson Orogen, with the Coolbro Sandstone the likely copper source. The ore body was likely to be sheet-like, stratiform and stratabound with ore boundaries gently transgressing lithological layering (Haynes, 1979). Haynes (1990) defined as a search priority cryptalgal laminated carbonates within 300m of the basin margin and in basal sediment pinchouts and pinch downs (Anderson, 1999).
The Nifty Cu deposit consists of a secondary oxide and primary sulphide ore bodies that are hosted by folded and altered carbonaceous shale and dolomitic mudstone of the Broadhurst Formation. The upper secondary oxide ore body is restricted to the northern limb of a syncline and consists of a zoned sequence of malachite, azurite ± cuprite ± native copper ± chalcocite. Additional shale-hosted remobilised mineralisation occurs in the hanging wall between the pre-mining water table and the base of oxidation front (Dare, 1994). This late mineralisation is considered to have formed due to supergene remobilisation of primary
sulphides and secondary oxides by ground waters and the re-precipitation of those metals at the palaeo-water table (Dare, 1994).
The primary ore body is located in the syncline keel and the main economic mineral is chalcopyrite with lesser, sub-economic sphalerite and galena. This sulphide mineralisation is spatially associated with silicification and re- crystallisation of a carbonate host. Consequently, the resultant rock mass is massive with few, rough irregular joints with much of the bedding has been obliterated. In many respects, these lodes bear a strong resemblance to the recrystallised silica-dolomite 1100 Orebody at Mount Isa (Bennett et al, 2004)
Drill hole
Information
• A summary of all information material to
the understanding of the exploration results including a tabulation of the following information for all Material drill holes:
• easting and northing of the drill hole collar
• elevation or RL (Reduced Level - elevation above sea level in metres) of the drill hole collar
• dip and azimuth of the hole
• down hole length and interception depth
• hole length.
• If the exclusion of this information is justified on the basis that the information
is not Material and this exclusion does not
detract from the understanding of the report, the Competent Person should clearly explain why this is the case.
No exploration results has been released during the reporting period, therefore there is no drill hole information to report. This section is not applicable.
Comments relating to drill hole information relevant to the Mineral Resource estimate can be found in Section 1 - "Sampling techniques", "Drilling techniques" and "Drill sample recovery" ASX Release dated 15 June 2015.
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Data aggregation methods
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• In reporting Exploration Results, weighting averaging techniques, maximum and/or minimum grade truncations (eg cutting of high grades) and cut-off grades are usually Material and should be stated.
• Where aggregate intercepts incorporate short lengths of high grade results and longer lengths of low grade results, the procedure used for such aggregation
should be stated and some typical examples
of such aggregations should be shown in detail.
• The assumptions used for any reporting of metal equivalent values should be clearly stated.
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No exploration results has been released during the reporting period, therefore there is no drill hole information to report. This section is not applicable.
Comments relating to data aggregation methods relevant to the Mineral Resource estimate can be found in Section 1 - "Sampling techniques", "Drilling techniques" and "Drill sample recovery" ASX Release dated 15 June 2015.
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Relationship between mineralisation widths and intercept lengths
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• These relationships are particularly important in the reporting of Exploration Results.
• If the geometry of the mineralisation with respect to the drill hole angle is known, its nature should be reported.
• If it is not known and only the down hole lengths are reported, there should be a
clear statement to this effect (eg 'down hole length, true width not known').
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No exploration results has been released during the reporting period, therefore there are no relationships between mineralisation widths and intercept lengths to report. This section is not applicable.
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Diagrams
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• Appropriate maps and sections (with scales) and tabulations of intercepts should be included for any significant discovery being reported These should include, but not be limited to a plan view of drill hole collar locations and appropriate sectional views.
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No exploration results has been released during the reporting period, therefore no exploration diagrams have been produced. This section is not applicable.
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Balanced reporting
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• Where comprehensive reporting of all Exploration Results is not practicable, representative reporting of both low and high grades and/or widths should be practiced to avoid misleading reporting of Exploration Results.
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No exploration results has been released during the reporting period, therefore there are no results to report. This section is not applicable.
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Other substantive exploration data
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• Other exploration data, if meaningful and material, should be reported including (but not limited to): geological observations; geophysical survey results; geochemical survey results; bulk samples - size and method of treatment; metallurgical test results; bulk density, groundwater, geotechnical and rock characteristics; potential deleterious or contaminating substances.
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Not applicable.
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Further work
• The nature and scale of planned further work (eg tests for lateral extensions or depth extensions or large-scale step-out drilling).
• Diagrams clearly highlighting the areas of possible extensions, including the main geological interpretations and future drilling areas, provided this information is not commercially sensitive.
No drill programs are planned.
Not Applicable.