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Aditya Birla Minerals Limited

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

ASX RELEASE Nifty Underground Ore Reserve Estimate as at 31 March 2016 23 May 2016

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: investorrelations@adityabirla.com.au

ADITYA BIRLA MINERALS LIMITED Ore Reserve Update as at 31 March 2016

Birla Nifty Underground Ore Reserve Estimate

Aditya Birla Minerals Limited (ABY) is pleased to advise that the Nifty Sulphide Ore Reserve Estimate has been re-assessed and updated by AMC Consultants Pty Ltd (AMC). The Ore Reserve estimate as at 31 March 2016 (2016 Ore Reserve), reported in accordance with JORC Code 2012 guidelines is tabulated in Table 1.

Table 1 Nifty Sulphide Ore Reserves as at 31 March 2016

Classification

Cut-off Grade

%

Tonnes (Mt)

Grade (% Cu)

Metal

(kt Cu)

Proved

1.5

3.63

1.88

68

Probable

1.61

1.78

29

Total Ore Reserve

5.24

1.85

97

Significant work was undertaken by AMC to update the Life of Mine Plan (LOMP) for the Nifty Sulphide operation taking into account the updated resource model as at 31 March 2016, revised copper price and AU$/US$ exchange rate forecasts, ore depletion due to mining between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2016, and experience gained in various areas of the mine post the sink-hole event. This has resulted in a material change to the Ore Reserve.

The following information is provided pursuant to Listing Rule 5.9.1 and 5.9.2. Mineral Resource

The Mineral Resource block model for Nifty Sulphide operation was updated as at 31 March 2016 and results were announced on 16 May 2016. This March 2016 resource block model was used to update the Life of Mine Plan (LOMP) and compile the 31 March 2016 ore reserve estimate.

The Measured and Indicated Resource categories were converted to Proved and Probable Reserves in the Checkerboard (CB) area. The Measured Resource in the North Limb area (NL) below 12Level has also been assigned the Proved Reserve as some stoping has been carried out in these areas successfully.

However, Measured and Indicated resources located in the North Limb (above 12Level) and West Limb mining areas (WL) was converted to Probable Reserves to reflect that stoping in these areas has not been trialled or mined to-date.

Note: Listing Rule 5.9.1 requires listing the criteria used for classification of the Mineral Resources and for this purpose the resource report published by ABY on 16 May 2016 should be referred to. To comply with the listing Rules, Section 1, 2 & 3 of the report relevant to Nifty is included in Appendix 1. Geotechnical

The main geotechnical issues presented by the remaining mine life at Nifty are the preferred extraction sequence and maintaining access to late stage mining areas. As preventing subsidence is no longer a requirement, some of the planned mining areas will not be backfilled. Instead, they will be mined on retreat, with pillar yielding expected to occur sometime after the main production phase has occurred in a given stoping panel or area.

The current expression of subsidence on surface post the March 2014 sink- hole event is expected to increase, with a broadening and deepening of the general subsidence trough centered over the CB area.

The March 2016 life-of-mine-plan (2016 LOMP) draws heavily on the experience gained at Nifty to date in Checkerboard and North Limbs. There is currently only limited geotechnical data available in the West Limb mining area, but the general indication is that the ground is of poorer quality than in the CB area. Jointing is understood to be more prominent and some of the joints have low strength infilling.

Cut-off Grade (COG)

For the calculation of COG, copper price forecasts and foreign exchange estimates were provided by ABY, after considering a number of third party forecasts up until 2020.

The copper price and exchange rate forecasts used are provided in Table 1.1.

Table1.1 Copper prices and exchange rates

Item

Unit

FY2017

FY2018

FY2019

FY2020

Copper price

US$/t

4,935

5,425

5,762

5,333

Exchange rate

A$:US$

0.7150

0.7400

0.7500

0.7700

Copper price

A$/t

6,902

7,331

7,683

6,926

AMC used the LOM average operating costs, copper price forecasts and exchange rates to calculate the stoping COG. The stoping COG was calculated to be 1.65% Cu. However, stope designs for 2016 LOMP are based upon a 1.5% Cu COG, which was provided by ABY. This is significantly higher than the 1.1 % COG used in the 31 March 2015 Ore Reserve estimate (2015 Ore Reserve).

A marginal COG (excluding mining costs) of 0.6% was calculated for reporting development ore for Ore Reserve purposes. The marginal COG is estimated using the same parameters as the stope design COG - with the exception of the mining costs, which is set to zero.

2016 LOMP average inputs used to calculate the COG are detailed in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Cut-off grade parameters

Data

Unit

2016 LOMP

(average)

Parameters

US$/t

5,364

Copper price (LOM weighted average) per tonne

Exchange rate (LOM weighted average)

A$/US$

0.7438

Copper Price per tonne

A$/t

7,211

Costs

$/t

50.10

Mining

Processing

$/t

23.18

Admin

$/t

8.46

Total

$/t

81.74

Breakeven Cut-Off Grade

%Cu

1.65

Nominated Cut-Off Grade for stope design

% Cu

1.50

Mine Layout

Historical mining at Nifty has focused on the Checker Board (CB) mining area using the longhole open stoping (LHOS) mining method with pastefill. Deteriorating ground conditions resulting from a combination of past mining and the March 2014 sink-hole event has limited upper and mid-level access to the majority of secondary, tertiary and regional pillar stopes remaining within the CB area.

The underground operation has been divided into three mining areas; CB, West Limb area (WL) and North Limb area (NL). An overview of the mine layout is shown in Figure 1.

Aditya Birla Minerals Limited published this content on 23 May 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 23 May 2016 06:42:10 UTC.

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