OLYMPIC DAM

Mr SIBBONS (Mitchell) (14:17): My question is to the Premier. Can he advise the house whether the mine shaft at the Olympic Dam mine is being recommissioned?

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:17): Obviously, Olympic Dam is very important to this state. Members would be aware of the catastrophic accident that occurred last October—catastrophic in terms of production, but thank God that no-one was hurt or killed. Just to put that into perspective, people would be aware that an accident occurred in October of last year that saw the system damaged and metal production at Olympic Dam cut by 75 per cent. This was in the Clark shaft.

The Clark shaft is fully automated, concrete lined and extends from the surface to a depth of about 860 metres and is seven metres in diameter. Ore that is crushed underground is hauled to the surface in two 36.5 tonne capacity skips, with a combined capacity of 1,375 tonnes per hour. Members of this house would be aware that the total ore production at Olympic Dam is in excess of 95 million tonnes per annum, and about 70 to 75 per cent is hauled from underground using the Clark shaft.

BHP Billiton advised the Australian Stock Exchange on 21 October 2009, that a force majeure had been declared on some uranium and copper sales contracts from Olympic Dam due to massive damage to the main ore haulage Clark shaft. I am very pleased to inform the house today that after many, many months of extraordinarily hard work by BHP Billiton and contractors, that BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam mine is heading back to full production, with hoisting from the Clark shaft recommencing in the last couple of days.

As we saw, the damage to the Clark shaft meant a reduction in Olympic Dam's production of around 75 per cent. That is a massive reduction in production over these many months. So over the last seven months an extensive repair program has been undertaken. Significant works underground in the shaft itself and up to the surface infrastructure have now been completed. This week small amounts of ore have begun to be hoisted by the Clark shaft system and BHP Billiton will continue to refine and recommission the system over the coming few weeks. BHP Billiton expects to return to normal operation by the end of the June 2010 quarter.

I was very pleased to meet with Marius Kloppers and other executives of both Olympic Dam and BHP Billiton's head office this morning. We discussed the resource rental tax and, once again, in a series of meetings we are very pleased to be acting as an honest broker with the federal government in order to ameliorate the impact on projects in this state.