BHP Billiton has pushed back the start date for its giant Olympic Dam copper and uranium expansion until at least 2015.This was to include digging the world’s biggest open-pit mine.In a long-awaited presentation, the mining giant was tight-lipped on development costs, which have been tipped by analysts to be $15 billion, and indicated it would not reveal them until the project was approved, in 2010 at the earliest.BHP’s ambitious plans for the deposit will see it ramp up in three major stages over 10 or 11 years, with the planned, huge pit eventually eating into the existing underground mine and mill around 2025.The end result would be a pit 7km long, 5km wide and 1km deep…………………BHP said government approval was not expected until 2010, back from an earlier target of 2008…………………..BHP is looking at a 10 to 12 year operation and said it would upgrade the feasibility study on the resource of about 35,000 tonnes of uranium oxide to determine the best way to develop it. BHP delays opening of world’s biggest pit | The Australian
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