Olympic Dam, South Australia

P0

Olympic Dam is a mining and processing center for copper, uranium, gold and silver in the center of the State of South Australia in Australia. Olympic Dam is currently the largest underground mine in Australia. The deposit is currently the fourth largest known each resource for copper and gold as well as by far the largest known uranium resource for dar. Currently, a massive expansion of production and development of the deposit open pit is being prepared. The owner Billiton BHP since 2005.

Geography

Mines and deposits are named after a water retention basin, which a local farmer in 1956 and named in honor of the docked just held Olympic Games Olympic Dam. The mining complex is located west of Lake Torrens in Roxby Downs Salt Lake Municipal Council. The about 2900 employees live in Roxby Downs majority. The small town was founded in 1987 as a working class neighborhood south of the mining area and has grown to now about 4000 inhabitants. The nearest towns are 30 km away Opalbergbauort Andamooka and Woomera located 60 km south on the Stuart Highway, which runs from Adelaide to Darwin.

History

1969 Western Mining (WMC ) began with the search for copper deposits in central South Australia. After evaluation of geophysical data 1975, the first successful exploration wells were drilled. In 1988, the commercial mining was started at a relatively modest annual production of about 45,000 tonnes of copper, 1,000 tonnes of uranium oxide, gold and silver as byproducts. After several extensions, the annual production currently stands at 200,000 tonnes of copper, 4,500 tonnes of uranium oxide, 80.000 ounces of gold and 800,000 ounces of silver.

The Government of South Australia adopted the 1982 Roxby Downs Act- Law, in which the mine was freed from various legal requirements. The local administration to the Roxby Downs and only the Olympic Dam mine belong, were provided with this measure, with special rights.

An agreement between WMC and several Aboriginal organizations was concluded in 1999, which granted an extension of the mining areas and the construction of a power supply.

In June 2005, BHP Billiton acquired for 9.2 billion Australian dollars WMC Resources. An economic study examined a massive expansion of production. The southern part of the deposit should it be developed in the open pit. A sea water desalination plant to be built in 300 km south Port Augusta should relieve the current supply of fossil groundwater. In April 2009, BHP Billiton presented the Environmental Impact Statement ( EIA ) completed and published this. In August 2012, BHP announced at that Mia $ extension but does not perform as planned because it would be too capital intensive at the fallen prices of copper at 30.

Deposit

Olympic Dam belongs to the group of Iron -Oxide- Copper - Gold ( IOCG ) deposits, it is considered as the prototype for this deposit group, which was unknown before the discovery of Olympic Dam. The deposit is located in an about 1.58 billion year old granite, which is overlain by about 300 m Neoproterozoic sediments. Hydrothermal processes have brecciated granite and fortified with iron, copper, uranium, gold, silver and rare earth elements.

The deposit has in plan is circular in shape with an approximately 5 km long narrow extension to the northwest. Civil engineering is currently taking place in the north-western section, the open pit will open up the circular center. The contingent resources of the deposit will be 8.3 billion tonnes of ore grading 0.8 % copper, 0.028% uranium oxide and 0.5 g / t gold. The currently funded ores from the northern part contain around twice as high ore grade. The ore deposit extends to a depth of at least 2,200 m. Olympic Dam is one of the largest ore deposits of the earth and represents by far the largest proven uranium resource

Large industrial plant

At the mine site is a one-time major Australian plant, which includes a hydro -metallic concentrator for uranium and copper, including a smelter and electrolytic refinery.

The production of Olympic Dam in 2011 amounted to 194 100 tons of copper, 4,045 tonnes of uranium oxide, 111,368 ounces of gold and 982,000 ounces of silver.