After having acquired the necessary approval from the South Australian government with regards to environmental issues, BHP Billiton have been quick on the draw to announce a Significant Commitment to Olympic Dam Expansion, as per the press release. It has been a bit slow over at Olympic Dam, in terms of developing the asset, but there have been more than just a few issues.
For those of you who do not know how amazing this asset really is, this is possibly the simplest explanation that I have seen from the BHP Billiton website: "Olympic Dam is a multi-mineral ore body containing uranium oxide, copper, gold and silver. Olympic Dam is Australia's largest underground mine." BHP Billiton acquired this asset in 2005, that is the reason why I say that "things" have been slow going there. According to Wikipedia:
"The Olympic Dam mine uses 35 million litres of Great Artesian Basin water each day, making it the largest industrial user of underground water in the southern hemisphere."
So you can see the concern about ground water in a country where there is not a whole lot of water. We are pleased with the ramp up of this freak asset, and by freak I mean like a genius. Some suggest that production from this asset has the ability to lower overall commodity prices. Well, I am pretty sure that BHP Billiton can manage this well enough.