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Category: Mining Industry / Industry / Business, Economics and Finance

BHP announces scaled back Olympic Dam expansion plans

Friday, 8 Jul 2016 10:47:26 | Angelique Donnellan

BHP Billion plans to increase copper production at Olympic Dam in South Australia. (Supplied: BHP Billiton)

A low-risk rather than "big bang" expansion of the Olympic Dam mine in South Australia's north will happen over the next five years, BHP Billiton has announced.

Key points:

  • Plans to redevelop mine were shelved in 2012
  • Smaller expansion now on the agenda
  • BHP Billiton is testing "heap leaching" to extract ore

Plans for a $30 billion redevelopment of the copper and uranium mine were shelved in 2012, and with it the hopes of a massive economic windfall for South Australia.

High capital costs and subdued commodity prices were blamed at the time.

BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam asset president Jacqui McGill said plans to increase production were back on track, but would be dramatically different to the previous expansion proposal.

"We are no longer looking at a 'big bang' expansion of Olympic Dam instead we will increase production capacity through low-risk, capital efficient underground expansions, including accessing the Southern Mine Area," she said.

She said the company planned to increase copper production to about 230,000 tonnes in five years but there was potential for up to 450,000 tonnes per year.

BHP Billiton has been testing an alternative, less capital-intensive process, called "heap leaching" using chemicals to extract ore.

"Continuing expansion underground and successful on-site application of heap leach technology could provide an opportunity for further growth," she said.

Ms McGill said trials would soon start at a smelter pilot plant in Finland.

"This test-work, due to commence in September this year, is aiming to determine the effectiveness of smelting concentrate from the heap leach process with existing Olympic Dam concentrate in a pilot flash matte smelter.

"This is an important next step in considering the application of heap leach technology at Olympic Dam and we remain on track to complete the heap leach trials in 2019," she said.

Ms McGill insisted Olympic Dam was a generational resource for South Australia, with 70 per cent of the resource footprint remaining untapped.

"Olympic Dam is unlike most other operating mines — because our copper grade is actually increasing," she said.

"That's because we are starting to move into the Southern Mine Area, which represents 70 per cent of the ore body that we haven't even touched in our first 25 years of operation."

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