Fatality at Nifty

Copper miner Aditya Birla Minerals has suffered a contractor fatality at its Nifty copper mine in the Great Sandy Desert.

The fatality happened overnight at its underground mine facility, which is 350 kilometres east of Port Hedland.

The contractor operated a bogger, equipment which transports waste rock, soil and/or ore onto trucks or around a mining operation.

An investigation by the Department of Mines and Petroleum into the accident is expected to start today.

The company has temporarily suspended its mining operations.

Chief executive officer Neela Patnaik said he was deeply saddened by the news, and the thoughts and prayers of the entire company were with the family of the deceased.

It isn’t the first problem at the Nifty minesite, which was closed by the Department in April last year due to a sinkhole.

The company then fell victim to an industrial relations dispute when it put its workers on indefinite unpaid leave after the incident.

As part of an agreement to reopen the mine, the DMP requested monthly updates on progress, scheduling and geotechnical analysis.

The mine reopened in late July.

In March, Aditya forecast production at the mine would be around 13,000 tonnes of copper concentrate for the 12 month period to the end of the March quarter.

That update said heavy rainfall had also caused a shutdown of part of the mine, while gas turbin issues and a gearbox failure had caused problems in the site's mill.

Aditya fell 13.3 per cent for the day, closing at 19.5 cents per share.