Resource
Copper (Cu), Uranium (U), Silver (Ag), Gold (Au)
Location
560 km north of Adelaide in the Far North of South Australia
Company and tenement information
- BHP
- Special Mining Lease SML1
- Information about Olympic Dam tenements is available via the South Australian Resources Information Gateway (SARIG)
Mining operation and status
- Operating
- Underground mine with more than 450 km of underground roads and tunnels
- Automated train system hauls ore to surface crushing, storage and ore hoisting facilities
- Processing plan to extract high-quality copper concentrate from sulfide ore through a flotation process
- Fully integrated metallurgical complex with grinding and concentrating circuit, hydrometallurgical plant with solvent extraction circuits for copper and uranium, copper smelter and refinery, recovery circuit for precious metals
- More information is available on the BHP website
The deposit
- On the eastern margin of the Gawler Craton
- One of the world’s most significant deposits of copper, gold, silver and uranium
- Deposit unconformably overlain by about 300 m of Neoproterozoic to Cambrian age, flat-lying sedimentary rocks of the Stuart Shelf
- Hosted within the Olympic Dam Breccia Complex, occurring entirely within the Roxby Downs Granite
- Mineralisation is contained within a granite-hosted breccia complex
- Principal copper-bearing minerals - chalcopyrite, bornite and chalcocite, occurring as disseminated grains, veinlets and fragments with breccia zones
- Gold typically occurs as extremely fine particles within and associated with the copper sulfide grains
- Silver largely occurs in solid solution with the sulfide minerals
More information:
- Detailed information about the mineral deposit details can be found on the SA Geodata Database MINDEP
- MESA Journal article: Lachlan J. Reynolds, Geology of the Olympic Dam Cu-U-Au-Ag-REE deposit (PDF 5.1 MB), MESA Journal 23 October 2001, pp 4-11.
Resource estimates and production estimates
Company released resource estimates and production statistics for South Australia's major operating and approved mines are summarised in South Australia's major operating/approved mines: resources estimates and production statistics (PDF, updated regularly).
Approval process
The Olympic Dam Mine operates under the Roxby Downs (Indenture Ratification) Act 1982 and the Olympic Dam and Stuart Shelf Indenture (the Indenture) which is a Schedule to the Act.
Current documents
Olympic Dam Smelter Refinery Expansion Project
BHP is proposing to undertake an expansion of smelter and refining activities at Olympic Dam.
The main elements of the proposal include:
- Increasing smelting and refinery capacity up from 200,000 tonnes per annum of copper cathode (tpa Cu) and associated products (including gold, silver and uranium) to up to 650,000 tpa Cu and associated products.
- Construction of a second smelter furnace to produce copper matte, along with the repurposing of the existing Direct-to-Blister Flash Furnace smelter to enable further conversion of the matte to blister.
- Construction and operation of water supply and storage infrastructure, linking water to be delivered by the Northern Water Project.
- Upgrades to existing electricity transmission infrastructure with upgrades required to the 275kV transmission line from Davenport.
On 26 August 2024, the Minister for Energy and Mining, as the relevant Minister, declared this proposal an impact assessed development under the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 as defined by the Olympic Dam and Stuart Shelf Indenture scheduled to the Roxby Downs (Indenture Ratification) Act 1982.
Details on the assessment process and relevant documentation can be found at the PlanSA portal - Olympic Dam Smelter Refinery Expansion Project
The following documents are available on the SA Planning Portal:
- Assessment stages and documents for the previous Olympic Dam Resource Development Strategy
- Assessment stages and documentation for the previously proposed open-cut mine Olympic Dam Expansion, including:
- Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
- BHP response document
- Government assessment reports
Environmental protection and monitoring programs (EPMPs)
- Environmental management program 2023
- Environmental management manual 2023
- Environmental management program - annual targets, actions and major changes 2023
- Monitoring program - fauna 2023
- Monitoring program - flora 2023
- Monitoring program - airborne emissions 2023
- Monitoring program - Great Artesian Basin 2023
- Monitoring program - environmental radiation 2023
- Monitoring program - groundwater 2023
- Monitoring program - waste 2023
- Monitoring program - energy use and greenhouse gas emissions 2023
- Monitoring program - social effects 2023
Closure management plan
Compliance reporting
- Olympic Dam Great Artesian Basin Wellfields Report for 1 July 2022 - 30 June 2023 (PDF 1.3 MB)
- Olympic Dam Annual environmental protection and management program for 1 July 2022 - 30 June 2023 (PDF 11. MB)
Historical documents and records are available via the South Australian Resources Information Gateway (SARIG)
Uranium incident reports
South Australia’s uranium mines and processing facilities are required to report incidents involving the unplanned release of radioactive process materials, radioactive liquids or radioactive wastes associated with the physical and chemical processing of uranium ores, following standard criteria and procedures.
More information
For more information about this mining operation contact DEM.MiningRegRehab@sa.gov.au
