Market Watch reported that BHP Billiton Limited has moved a step closer to approving the multi billion expansion of its Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium mine into one of the world's largest open pit operations after an Australian state passed legislation allowing the project to proceed.
The bill was ratified by South Australia's parliament despite criticism from the opposition Greens Party which has warned against radioactive waste from what would become one of the world's largest uranium mines.
The project has already received environmental approvals from the federal and South Australian governments and BHP in October earmarked USD 1.2 billion for early work including ordering trucks and accommodation.
Mr Dean Dalla Valle president of BHP's uranium division said that "The passage of this bill provides the company with greater certainty for what would be a significant investment. It also allows us to activate precommitment funding. The company needed to complete further studies on the project before seeking board approval next year for the first phase of the expansion.”
Analysts have estimated the project could cost close to USD 30 billion, a large chunk of the USD 80 billion BHP aims to invest in its mining and petroleum operations over the next 5 years. The company hasn't given a figure for the expansion but has said work would be carried out in phases.
Executives at BHP and rival Anglo Australian miner Rio Tinto PLC RIO 0.94% have in recent weeks warned that customer sentiment has become more negative amid global economic uncertainty and that buyers of their products are finding it harder to secure credit. Still, both say they continue to sell all that they can produce and will hold to plans to invest throughout the economic cycle.
BHP has been working on plans to develop an open pit mine alongside existing underground operations at Olympic Dam that would increase copper production to 750,000 tonnes of copper a year from about 180,000 tonnes currently over the next 30 years. It would also add annual uranium output of 14,500 tonnes and a further 700,000 ounces of gold and 2.1 million ounces of silver to current mining capacity.
(Sourced from Market Watch)
