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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-11-13 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

OLYMPIC DAM EXPANSION

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Minister for State Development) (14:05): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: A little earlier today, the government announced that it had granted an extension to the variation deed to the indenture governing BHP Billiton operations at Olympic Dam. The period in which BHP is required to approve the expansion has been extended to October 2016. This is the period sought by BHP in its request to government dated 26 September 2012. The ore body at Olympic Dam is substantial. It is the world's fourth largest copper deposit and largest uranium deposit. This world-class resource will be developed, but it will be developed on a longer time line than South Australians had anticipated earlier this year.

Granting the extension will enable BHP to complete the investigations it needs in order to develop a revised mine plan. Critical to the revised plan will be the successful deployment of new technologies relating to the extraction of material from the mine pit and processing of the ores. It is the investigation of these new technologies which primarily accounts for the delay in the development of the mine.

BHP has committed to undertaking a number of activities in South Australia during this extension period. It has committed to spending more than $540 million over the next four years on the rescoping project itself, including the new technology studies and on-site works. This will include a substantial research collaboration to develop a new method for producing copper metal and uranium oxide via the application of heap leach technology to Olympic Dam ore.

This groundbreaking research has the potential to unlock mixed ore bodies right across South Australia by providing for lower cost recovery of all our minerals. This is just one of a number of research collaborations BHP Billiton will support in relation to its mining activity. It will also contribute to research by providing materials such as representative drill cores, geological data, and research reports relating to Olympic Dam to the state core library. This will provide researchers with a rich resource of material to help understand how Olympic Dam formed and how others can be found.

BHP will also make substantial provisions for expanding Aboriginal opportunity. This includes awarding the major on-site excavation contract to an Aboriginal enterprise or joint venture. It will invest in mining services industry development, including by developing an industry clustering program which will embed technical expertise in local companies and provide seed funding to companies to allow them to find solutions to Olympic Dam related issues and by helping develop the Mining Industry Participation Office.

It will contribute to environmental initiatives, including provisions of 2.1 million hectares of land to help establish a north-south biodiversity corridor and a research collaboration about the environmental impacts on Spencer Gulf and its marine life, including the giant cuttlefish, and it will invest in the establishment of a major national Indigenous visual arts festival. There is no such festival in Australia or the world, so this will be a significant celebration of Indigenous culture right here in Adelaide.

All up, BHP is committing more than $650 million to be spent in South Australia over the next four years on these activities. Through this package of activities, BHP has recommitted itself to South Australia. These activities represent substantial commitments by BHP to its workers, to South Australia, and to the future of Olympic Dam. But, perhaps more importantly for South Australians, today's commitments will ensure that South Australia will be better placed to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Olympic Dam expansion when it does occur.

We will have more workers with the right skills, more businesses with the capacity to take up the contracts on offer and the innovative capacity to solve BHP's problems, and a mining research capacity that will draw the best minds from around the country and the world to Adelaide. This means more jobs for South Australians, not just at the mine itself but in all the industries that flow from it. Our vision is to create for South Australia a mining services hub for Australia and our region. Today's commitments represent substantial steps towards that vision.

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