Olympic Dam
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[edit] Brief 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. [1]
[edit] Ownership
Olympic Dam is now owned and operated by BHP Billiton. [2]
[edit] Location
The mine is located approximately 26 km west of Andamooka in South Australia and 560 km northwest of Adelaide. [3]
South Australia, 560 km north of Adelaide and 50 km north of Woomera. Situated in arid pastoral land. The mine is approximately 500 m underground beneath unmineralised sedimentary rocks.Only the town is known as Roxby Downs. The mine is known as Olympic Dam. [4]
[edit] Deposit Size
The Olympic Dam mine lease is 17,788.11 hectares on arid zone land. The property has a large number of discrete ore zones throughout an area of several square kilometres ranging in depth from 350 metres to approximately one kilometre. Olympic Dam stood at 374Mt grading 2.1% copper and 0.7kg/t U3O8, 0.8 g/t Au and 4.5 g/t Ag. Recent drilling results have increased the mineral resource on the property by over 30%.[5]
[edit] Production per annum
- The mine would produce annually 500,000 ounces of gold, as well as 500,000t of copper and 15,000t of yellowcake. [6]
- Process - Processing facilities consist of a copper concentrator, hydrometallurgical plant, copper smelter, sulphuric acid plant, copper and gold/silver refineries. Recent expansions included a Svedala autogenous mill, additions to the flotation sections, two counter-current decantation thickeners, an electric slag-cleaning furnace, a new anode furnace gas-cleaning plant and additional electro-refining cells. Copper is recovered primarily by copper sulphide flotation from slurry before the copper concentrate is smelted and electro-refined to high-purity copper. Wastes generated during electro-refining are treated to recover gold and silver. After treatment by flotation, the finely-crushed ore is leached with sulphuric acid to dissolve uranium and any remaining copper. The leach liquor is processed in the solvent extraction plant to separate the residual copper and uranium streams. Copper is recovered by electrowinning and uranium converted to yellowcake and calcined uranium oxide. Installation of two pulsed columns has increased uranium recovery from solution from 90% to about 97%. These columns use an air pulse to mix the acidic and organic solutions, providing better contact for the chemical reaction involved in transferring the uranium from one to the other.
- The mine uses over 30 million litres of water daily. Water is supplied from borefields established 100 to 200 km north of Olympic Dam in the Great Artesian Basin. There is a parallel 600 mm diameter pipelineCopper cathode sheets are transported by truck within Australia and to Port Adelaide for export. All uranium oxide produced at Olympic Dam is exported.
- High levels of automation with minimal operator input are being installed in the new facilities, and incorporate diagnostics and data capture to optimise production. The process plant is controlled from a central control room (CCR) and the mine is controlled from a new mine control room. Screen-based field operator stations are provided throughout the facilities for monitoring.
[edit] Operating Cost
Capital Cost is $ US 5.18 M
The projected cost of the expansion will be $A7 billion ($US5.18 M). [7]
[edit] External Analysis
Olympic Dam maintains storage facilities for all waste products. The plant has been designed so that any spillage of ore, concentrate or process slurries can readily be returned to the process circuit. The plant also includes comprehensive air pollution control equipment and both air emissions and noise are monitored. Extensive radiation monitoring of personnel and the environment is ongoing.
The arid recovery reserve is an ecosystem restoration initiative working to restore Australia's arid lands. It is located partly on the Olympic Dam Mine Lease (7km2) and partly on adjoining pastoral properties.
| GDP (purchasing power parity): | $766.8 billion (2007 est.) |
| GDP (official exchange rate): | $889.7 billion (2007 est.) |
| GDP - real growth rate: | 4% (2007 est.) |
| GDP - per capita (PPP): | $37,500 (2007 est.) |
| GDP - composition by sector: | agriculture: 3.7% |
| industry: 25.6% | |
| services: 70.7% (2007 est.) | |
| Labor force: | 10.9 million (2007 est.) |
| Labor force - by occupation: | agriculture: 3.6% |
| industry: 21.2% | |
| services: 75.2% (2004 est.) | |
| Unemployment rate: | |
| 4.4% (November 2007 est.) | |
| Population below poverty line: | NA% |
| Household income or consumption by percentage share: | lowest 10%: 2% |
| highest 10%: 25.4% (1994) | |
| Distribution of family income - Gini index: | 30.5 (2006) |
| Inflation rate (consumer prices): | 3% (2007 est.) |
| Investment (gross fixed): | 27.6% of GDP (2007 est.) |
| Budget: | revenues: $312 billion |
| expenditures: $299.6 billion (2007 est.) | |
| Public debt: | 15.2% of GDP |
| note: The Commonwealth government eliminated its net debt in 2006, but continues a gross debt issue to support the market for risk-free securities. (2007 est.) | |
| Agriculture - products: | wheat, barley, sugarcane, fruits, cattle, sheep, poultry |
| Industries: | mining, industrial and transportation equipment, food processing, chemicals, steel |
| Industrial production growth rate: | 3.5% (2007 est.) |
| Oil - production: | 572,400 bbl/day (2005 est.) |
| Oil - consumption: | 903,200 bbl/day (2005 est.) |
| Oil - exports: | 333,200 bbl/day (2004) |
| Oil - imports: | 611,400 bbl/day (2004) |
| Oil - proved reserves: | 1.437 billion bbl (1 January 2006 est.) |
| Natural gas - production: | 38.62 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
| Natural gas - consumption: | 25.72 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
| Natural gas - exports: | 12.9 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
| Natural gas - imports: | 0 cu m (2005) |
| Natural gas - proved reserves: | 750.6 billion cu m (1 January 2006 est.) |
| Current account balance: | $50.96 billion (2007 est.) |
| Exports: | $139.4 billion (2007 est.) |
| Exports - commodities: | coal, iron ore, gold, meat, wool, alumina, wheat, machinery and transport equipment |
| Exports - partners: | Japan 19.6%, China 12.3%, South Korea 7.5%, US 6.2%, India 5.5%, NZ 5.5%, UK 5% (2006) |
| Imports: | $152.7 billion (2007 est.) |
| Imports - commodities: | machinery and transport equipment, computers and office machines, telecommunication equipment and parts; crude oil and petroleum products |
| Imports - partners: | China 14.4%, US 14.1%, Japan 9.6%, Singapore 6%, Germany 5.1% (2006) |
| Economic aid - donor: | ODA, $2.123 billion (2006) |
| Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: | $71.15 billion (31 December 2007 est.) |
| Debt - external: | $757.9 billion (30 June 2007) |
| Stock of direct foreign investment - at home: | $246.2 billion (2006 est.) |
| Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad: | $226.8 billion (2006 est.) |
| Market value of publicly traded shares: | $804.1 billion (2005) |
| Currency (code): | Australian dollar (AUD) |
| Exchange rates: | Australian dollars per US dollar - 1.2137 (2007), 1.3285 (2006), 1.3095 (2005), 1.3598 (2004), 1.5419 (2003) |
[edit] Notes
- Underground mine –[9]
- 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. [10]
