Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-10-14 Daily Xml

Contents

OLYMPIC DAM

The Hon. M. PARNELL (15:04): Has the company indicated to you their revised scope for this project, and are you categorically ruling out requiring them to undertake a review of their EIS?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Premier in Public Sector Management) (15:04): As I said, BHP has indicated to me that they will be responding to the original proposal they put forward, and that will cover them up to 750,000 tonnes, I believe, of production. If they wanted to extend beyond that, clearly they would have to apply and the process would begin again.

After all, the current Olympic Dam operations went through a number of expansions. I believe the original indenture allowed for expansions up to the current level of 350,000 tonnes, from memory. The original indenture envisaged the particular level of production, when BHP wished to go beyond that, and that is why they are going through the application procedure. That is why the indenture is being renegotiated. That is why the environmental impact statement is before us now to permit this doubling or thereabouts of production.

If BHP wishes to double production again, then one imagines that will inevitably mean that they will go through the same sort of process they are going through now if they seek to go beyond what would be their approval limits. That is what has happened in the past, and I do not see any reason why that would not be the case in the future.