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Australia

Olympic Dam Mine

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Categories

Overview

Mine TypeUnderground
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Copper
  • Uranium
  • Gold
  • Silver
Mining Method
  • Sub-level open stoping (SLOS)
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Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotOlympic Dam is one of the world’s most significant deposits of copper, gold, silver and uranium. It comprises underground and surface operations, and is a fully integrated processing facility from ore to metal.

Olympic Dam has entered into a renewable energy supply arrangement to enable the asset to draw energy supplies from a solar-wind hybrid plant to reduce the Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions from its electricity consumption by 2025.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnershipInvestor's Info
BHP Group Ltd. 100 % Indirect
BHP Billiton Olympic Dam Corporation Pty Ltd. (operator) 100 % Direct
Olympic Dam is owned by the BHP Billiton Group through its wholly owned subsidiary BHP Billiton Olympic Dam Corporation Pty Ltd (ODC).

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • IOCG

Summary:

RD1 drilled through 335m of flat-lying Proterozoic and Cambrian sediments before passing through an unconformity into haematite altered basement rocks. In theory the copper mineralisation was supposed to be in the overlying sediments but assays revealed fine-grained hypogene chalcocite in the basement. RD1 returned 38m @ 1.05%Cu, which was considered uneconomic at these depths at this time, but RD10 changed that with an intersection of 170m @ 2.12%Cu and 0.58kg/t U3O8 and is considered the “Discovery Hole”.

However, following initial underground development in 1985-1987, it became apparent that none of the mineralisation was stratabound and that it was hosted in a highly variable magmatic-hydrothermal breccia complex that displays multiple brecciation, diatreme intrusions, mafic and ultramafic dyke intrusions along with interpreted gravity collapse of high level volcanic edifice material. The deposit is considered to be a member of the Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) family of deposits and has a close temporal and spatial association with the Hiltaba Suite of granites, dated at 1590Ma and more specifically the more fractionated and oxidised Roxby Downs subsuite (1588Ma).

The main lithologies at Olympic Dam comprise a continuum of breccias starting at the periphery with granite clasts set in little haematite matrix progressing into the centre where the clasts are wholly haematite in a haematite matrix. The principal gangue minerals are haematite, sericite and quartz. Minor gangue minerals include; siderite, chlorite, fluorite and barite.

The dominant sulphide minerals are chalcopyrite, bornite, chalcocite and pyrite. Minor sulphides include; carrolite, cobaltite, galena, sphalerite and molybdenite. Other minerals of interest are; metallic copper, electrum, Ag-, Hg-, Pb-, Bi-selenides and tellurides. The uranium at Olympic Dam occurs mostly as uraninite, coffinite or brannerite with trace amounts in zircon, monazite, florencite and bastinite.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Milling equipment has not been reported.

Processing

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Production

Olympic Dam copper in 2022 production decreased as a result of the major smelter maintenance campaign (SCM21) completed in January 2022 which was delayed due to COVID-19 impacts on the availability of the workforce.
CommodityProductUnits202320222021202020192018201720162015
Copper Cathode kt  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe160137166203124
Uranium Metal in concentrate t  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe3,5653,3643,6614,3633,144
Gold Metal in doré oz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe106,96891,556104,146117,686104,780
Silver Metal in doré koz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe923792768917724
^ Guidance / Forecast.

Operational metrics

Metrics20222021202020192018201720162015
Annual milling capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe10.3 Mt10.3 Mt10.3 Mt10.3 Mt10.3 Mt
Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe9,094 kt7,499 kt8,008 kt8,932 kt9,318 kt
Tonnes milled  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe7,965 kt7,215 kt8,604 kt9,699 kt7,928 kt

Production Costs

Commodity production costs have not been reported.

Financials

Units202220212020201920182017
Capital expenditures M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 485   669   267  
Revenue M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1,351   1,255   1,287  
EBIT M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe -58   39   224  
EBITDA M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 273   267   284  

Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNamePhoneProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jan 8, 2024
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ........... Subscription required Subscription required Jan 8, 2024
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jan 8, 2024
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jan 8, 2024
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jan 8, 2024
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Apr 19, 2024

Aerial view:

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