Overview -
Olympic Dam is an underground copper-uranium mine and plant located in South Australia. WMC Resources discovered the deposit in 1975 and opened the mine in 1988. Olympic Dam is now owned and operated by BHP Billiton.
Olympic Dam is the world's fourth-largest copper deposit and the largest uranium deposit and the fifth largest gold deposit. It also contains significant quantities of silver.
As of June 2008, Olympic Dam employed approximately 3,000 permanent and contractor employees.
The operation includes a fully-integrated metallurgical complex with a grinding/concentrating circuit, hydrometallurgical plant incorporating solvent extraction circuits for copper and uranium, a copper smelter, copper refinery and a recovery circuit for precious metals. The primary method of ore extraction is long hole open stoping with cemented aggregate fill.
Olympic Dam has 250kms of underground road and an electric train to collect crushed rock and bring it to the surface.
The mine uses over 30 million litres of water daily, piped from artesian wells up to 200km away.
A feasibility study is ongoing to explore the potential for open-pit mining to complement the underground operations. If the expansion goes ahead it would be a $5 billion project extending the mine life by 70-plus years. The expansion would more than double its current production capacity. Federal and South Australian Government environmental approvals are being sought to permit the expansion and an Environmental Impact Statement is being prepared.
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