BHP’s Olympic Dam copper mine has temporarily ceased operations after wild storms damaged electricity transmission towers in northern South Australia.
The mine, located 560km north of Adelaide, was forced to pause its operations, with surface infrastructure now running on backup generators.
“Olympic Dam will cease mining operations for five to seven days,” South Australian Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis said.
Koutsantonis said while critical power needs have been covered at the site, mining operations couldn’t continue because of “ventilation issues”.
The severe storms caused significant structural damage to the transmission lines that power the mine and the nearby Roxby Downs township.
BHP is collaborating closely with electricity transmission infrastructure group ElectraNet to assess the damage and expedite repairs.
“We have paused the majority of our underground mining and surface processing operations,” a BHP spokeswoman told The Australian Financial Review.
“Backup generation is providing power to Roxby Downs township, along with critical on-site infrastructure.”
A similar incident happened in 2016, wherein BHP was forced to halt Olympic Dam operations for 15 days due to a statewide blackout, incurring a cost of $137 million.
However, BHP is handling the current situation efficiently, ensuring safety and minimising disruption where possible.
“All of the safety issues are in place to make sure that the smelter can remain operational and warm,” Koutsantonis said.
“We’re working very very hard to make sure they get back online as fast as possible.”
It comes as BHP looks to double Olympic Dam’s production capacity to 650,000 tonnes of copper by the middle of the next decade. The mine produced approximately 322,000 tonnes of the base metal in the 2023–24 financial year.
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