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BHP blaming Australian government for the doubts about future of new big Olympic Dam uranum mine?

May 6, 2012

You have to sorta scour the news, to realise that the BHP board has not yet decided to go ahead with the new monster Olympic Dam uranium mine.   The decision delay is due to the massive cost of the massive project – which won’t make any money for decades.

However – let’s all pounce on the Australian government’s budget plans as the  cause of the delay. (Let’s just forget that the project benefits from all sorts og government exemptions, including the new Mining Resources Tax)

Diesel rebate may delay Olympic Dam Sun Herald, by: By Christopher Russell AdelaideNow May 03, 2012 BHP Billiton could be forced to delay expansion of the Olympic Dam mine if the Federal Government scraps its diesel fuel rebate in next week’s Budget, investment analysts say.

The company hinted at an investors’ conference in Sydney yesterday that another major project, at Port Hedland in WA, would be funded before Olympic Dam. Analysts at the conference said a fuel tax change could make the
difference and cause a delay to Olympic Dam….. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/diesel-rebate-may-delay-olympic-dam/story-fn7j19iv-1226345385388

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BHP Billiton’s uranium rush to grab South Australia

April 28, 2012

BHP Steps Up Its Olympic Ambitions, WSJ,   By Stephen Bell, April 24, 2012,  BHP Billiton is a fully paid-up believer in the mining theory of ‘nearology’ if its latest Australian land grab is anything to go by. The Anglo-Australian miner has tabled applications for exploration licenses covering more than 10,000 square kilometers in arid regions surrounding the huge Olympic Dam copper-gold–uranium mine  in South Australia state……

BHP is expected to make a decision this year on whether to proceed with an expansion at Olympic Dam, a project analysts estimate could cost close to US$30 billion. (more…)

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Aboriginal elder loses case against Australian government: Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act ineffective?

April 28, 2012

MINING GIANT SEEKS COSTS FROM ARABUNNA ELDER AFTER RULING ON CHALLENGE TO FEDERAL APPROVAL OF THE OLYMPIC DAM EXPANSION 20 April 12, In a packed courtroom today Justice Besanko dismissed Uncle Kevin Buzzacott’s challenge of the Federal approval of the Olympic Dam expansion. The judge did not discuss his reasons in the court.

Both BHP and the Federal government are seeking costs from Kevin Buzzacott. The hearing was held in the Federal Court on the 3rd and 4th April, after which the Judge reserved his judgement. Both BHP Billiton and the South Australian government had successfully sought to become parties to the proceedings.

“The speed with which this decision was made suggests pressure to resolve the matter as quickly as possible so as not to impact the project,” said Nectaria Calan of Friends of the Earth Adelaide.

“The judgement is really a product of the constrained nature of such administrative challenges. It really rests on interpretation of two pieces of legislation which govern the Ministers approval. The merits of the project were never on the table for discussion.”

“If such an approval with so many future plans yet to be approved constitutes a proper approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act, how can such an open-ended  project be judicially reviewed?” said Ms Calan. “The question we are left with is whether the EPBC Act protects the environment,” Ms Calan continued.

“This is a very sad day,” said applicant Kevin Buzzacott. “We offered the judge the issue on a platter, and he wasted an opportunity to make changes that will reverberate in this nation for thousands of years.”

“But we’re not going away. This isn’t over yet,” Mr Buzzacott concluded. Both Kevin Buzzacott and Nectaria Calan will be available for comment on the details of the ruling early next week once the lengthy judgement has been considered.

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Not certain that BHP will go ahead with world’s biggest uranium mine planned at Olympic Dam

April 28, 2012

Acting chief executive of the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy Nigel Long said the state’s mining industry was not solely reliant on the expansion of Olympic Dam because there were other “exciting opportunities” ahead, 

“The decision to press the pause button is a decision to be made by the BHP board, but we see a very good future for other projects in South Australia regardless…..

The BHP board will be considering whether to approve the project at a time when cost pressures in Australian mining are rising and profit margins are contracting.

BHP has Olympic hurdles to overcome, Financial Review 17 APR 2012  The South Australian government says it is not inclined to grant BHP Billiton an extension on an approvals expiring in December that cover the $US20 billion expansion of the Olympic Dam mine at this stage. Jamie Freed and Lucille Keen

“They’d need a ministerial exemption to continue those approvals,” the state’s Minister for Natural Resources Tom Koutsantonis told ABC Radio South Australia yester day. “Thus far I’ve seen nothing that would incline me to grant an exten sion.”

His comments followed a report in The Australian Financial Review on Saturday that BHP was weighing whether to hit the pause button on the project amid a weaker outlook for commodities, industry-wide cost inflation, added government imposts and pressure from shareholders to return more cash.

BHP’s largest shareholder, Black- Rock, has lowered its stake in the miner’s Australian arm from 5.7 percent to 4.99 per cent over the past six months, according to US regulatory filings. “BlackRock are realising BHP are going to press the button on Olympic Dam so they are getting out,”

Mr Koutsantonis said. “A lot of these institutional investors looking for short-term returns in a two to five-year period are coming to grips that BHP is going to press the button on a 40-year investment at Olympic Dam.”….

The indenture agreement signed last year that locks in royalties for a 45- year period expires on December 8 unless Mr Koutsantonis agrees to an extension and it is not opposed by either house of the state’s parliament….. Business SA executive officer Peter Vaughan said the negative speculation around the future development of Olympic Dam was not productive…..

Acting chief executive of the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy Nigel Long said the state’s mining industry was not solely reliant on the expansion of Olympic Dam because there were other “exciting opportunities” ahead, particularly in the magnetite form of iron ore on the Eyre Peninsula and the Braemar region, near Broken Hill.  Mr Long said if the pause button was pressed it would be felt, as the project would have a significant boost on the state’s economy. “The decision to press the pause button is a decision to be made by the BHP board, but we see a very good future for other projects in South Australia regardless…..

The BHP board will be considering whether to approve the project at a time when cost pressures in Australian mining are rising and profit margins are contracting.

http://afr.com/p/national/bhp_has_olympic_hurdles_to_overcome_cBuIcPVMPIBun2cTSHIXZI

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Earthquake danger to BHP’s OLympic Dam uranium mine

April 6, 2012

SEISMIC EXPERT: “MAGNITUDE 7 EARTHQUAKE RISK OBSCURED AT OLYMPIC DAM URANIUM MINE”, Coober Pedy Regional Times, 31 May 2010 “Was the Clark Shaft accident at the Olympic Dam mine preceded by a seismic event?”

A geophysicist who investigated earthquakes for the US Geological Survey for 22 years, says that the connection between mining and seismicity [earthquakes] is obscured in Australia, particularly the seismic hazard of the Olympic Dam mine.

In a communication [Memo] sent to various federal and state government ministers [and others] on Tuesday 22 May 2010, Seismologist Edward Cranswick discusses the 35-km-long, steeply dipping Mashers Fault which passes through the middle of the Olympic Dam ore body.  A fault length which implies an earthquake of maximum about 7.

The same memo is available as a PDF
http://cranswick.net/Kalgoorlie/KalgoorlieEarthquakeOlympicDamMine.pdf

BHP Billiton has proposed to dig the largest open-pit mine on the Earth at Olympic Dam, 4.1 km long, 3.5 km wide, 1 km deep. As a geophysicist who investigated earthquakes for the US Geological Survey for 22 years [1], I strongly criticised BHP’s Olympic Dam Expansion Draft Environmental Impact Statement 2009 (ODXdEIS) [2] because it omitted consideration of seismicity, i.e., rockbursts or earthquakes, caused by open-pit mining, despite the fact that seismic hazard is well-known in the Australian mining industry …..

Traditionally, underground mines are deeper, and therefore, more seismically hazardous than shallow open pits, but the proposed pit at Olympic Dam will be as deep as the underground mine it replaces. Based on the dimensions of the open-pit, the results of McGarr et al. (2002) [19] suggest an earthquake of maximum magnitude 4-6 could occur.

The 35-km-long, steeply dipping Mashers Fault passes through the middle of the Olympic Dam ore body that is to be mined – that fault length implies an earthquake of maximum magnitude about 7…….

It is absurd – irrational, unscrupulously & tragically dishonest and unprofessional – that the ODXdEIS for the proposed largest open-pit mine on Earth does not address the principal hazard to digging that mine, triggered/induced seismicity and rockbursts…… http://cooberpedyregionaltimes.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/seismic-expert-magnitude-7-earthquake-risk-obscured-at-olympic-dam-uranium-mine/

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BHP wants an imposing presence in Adelaide, to showcase biggest uranium hole in the world

March 10, 2012

discussions between major developers and BHP about a new $250m office tower in Currie Street, for which the company would have naming rights….

BHP plans office tower linked to Olympic Dam expansion, BY:MICHAEL OWEN:The Australian March 09, 2012 BHP Billiton is looking at teaming with a major developer to build a new office tower in Adelaide ahead of the planned expansion of its Olympic Dam mine in the far north of South Australia.

It is understood BHP is in talks with several developers and construction companies about a new office tower that could be worth up to $250 million.

The high-rise development, potentially slated for Currie Street, in Adelaide’s CBD, would provide the company with a significant visible presence as it launches a mammoth project with an estimated mine life of more than 100 years. (more…)

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Earthquake danger for BHP Billiton’s planned giant uranium mine

March 10, 2012

Antinuclear Australia, from our Seismology Watcher, 28 feb 12,  Australian Yet another timely warning for Quarry Australia following seismologist, Edward Cranswick’s peer-reviewed paper on the 35-km-long, steeply dipping Mashers Fault which passes through the middle of the Olympic Dam ore body. The fault length implies an earthquake of maximum about 7.

An observation by Cranswick is that censoring of Australian lists of earthquakes and their corresponding source parameters, (i.e., time, location, depth, magnitude) has taken place.

Cranswick, who investigated earthquakes for the US Geological Survey for 22 years, suggests that the connection between mining and sesmicity (earthquakes) is obscured in Australia particularly the seismic hazard of the OD project in SA. Seemingly, BHP’s proposed expansion and potential radioactive fall-out at the Olympic Dam project in the event of a “natural” catastrophe reveals scant regard for public health and safety. However, there is nothing like an outraged Momma Nature (whose **se is being chewed by the mining industry) to make an ecocidal event, a grim reality.

Cranswick also makes reference to the Barrick/Newmont super pit and its connection to the unprecedented 5.2 magnitude earthquake that occurred in the stable continental region of Kalgoorlie/Boulder in April 2010. And what a pitiful mess that made of the historic buildings in the main street of Boulder which is about a kilometre from the super pit.

En garde my fellow Australians, asleep at the wheel. http://antinuclear.net/2012/02/27/olympic-dam-uranium-mine-at-risk-from-earthquakes/

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Doubts on the future of BHP’s grandiose plan for Olympic Dam uranium mine

March 10, 2012

Reuters report on mining conference in Canada  Mar 6, 2012  By Euan Rocha  TORONTO, March 6  -  The Anglo-Australia mining giant, which already operates an underground mine at the site, has yet to sign off on the budget for
the open pit…. but BHP may opt to delay taking on the heavy financial burden that could easily be in the $10 billion to $20 billion range…..

…. PDAC, the mining industry’s largest annual gathering. The convention, organized by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, opened in Toronto on Sunday.

Even though Olympic Dam, located 550 km (345 miles) north of Adelaide, is one of BHP’s biggest growth prospects, the cost of
digging the massive pit may prove prohibitive.
Last month the company reported a profit decline, and it struck a cautious tone on its expectations for growth in China, one of its
biggest markets. That has led some to speculate that the miner may delay spending on capital-intensive projects such as Olympic Dam and the Jansen potash project in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.

In late 2011, BHP finalized state approvals to begin construction work on the open-pit phase of the Olympic Dam project, but the agreement would lapse around December if BHP delays its decision on proceeding.

“We want to see a board decision before the end of the year about substantial works beginning. If not, the approvals run out and BHP know this,” said  Tom Koutsantonis, minister for mineral resources and energy for the state of South Australia.” I’m not in the business, and no government should be in the business, of allowing anyone to have massive tenements that they don’t develop …”-
A spokesman for BHP declined to comment on the remarks.
MASSIVE SCALE The sheer scale of the open-pit project is formidable. BHP will have to shovel rock for five to seven years before it reaches the Olympic Dam ore body, discovered in the mid-1970s….. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/06/canada-mining-pdac-olympicdam-idUSL2E8E60E220120306

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“Goliath” BHP Billiton challenged by “David – Aboriginal elder Kevin Buzzacott

February 26, 2012

‘Tiny voice’ of elder takes on Olympic Dam BY: SARAH MARTIN, SA POLITICAL REPORTER  The Australian February 22, 2012   BHP Billiton’s proposed $20 billion Olympic Dam mine expansion, to create the world’s largest open-cut mine, will be challenged in the Federal Court after an application was lodged by Aboriginal elder Kevin Buzzacott.

Mr Buzzacott, who is known as Uncle Kevin, is being represented by the Adelaide-based Environmental Defenders Office. The office claims the mine expansion has been approved unlawfully under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act by federal Environment Minister Tony Burke.

Among the claims are that much of the environmental assessment and decision-making was based on plans and studies that have not yet been prepared and that the minister did not properly consider impacts from the above-ground storage of radioactive tailings waste, the export of uranium and on groundwater resources, including the Great Artesian Basin.

Mr Buzzacott, an elder from Arabunna land in South Australia’s remote north, is known for his anti-uranium campaigning, and in 2007 was awarded an Australian Conservation Foundation award recognising his protest work. The EDO filed an application on his behalf in the Federal Court yesterday, saying his “tiny voice” was prepared to take on the giant……
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/tiny-voice-of-elder-takes-on-olympic-dam/story-e6frgczx-1226277611443

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In South Australia, BHP Billiton’s uranium interests direct government policy

February 26, 2012

Commercial vested interests of uranium mining companies are writing the script for Australia’s uranium sales deals under both Liberal and now ALP federal governments…….

South Australia should come to its senses and recognise our society’s responsibilities to get out of the uranium trade and not be made complicit in nuclear risks for BHP Billiton’s vested interests.

Our uranium fuelled Fukushima, David Noonan, The Guardian, 22 Feb 12 “……..How did the SA government perform in exercising their responsibilities after Fukushima? Indigenous people bear a disproportionate burden of impacts from uranium mining and this will certainly continue to be the case in SA
under the Roxby Indenture deal “negotiated” by the state with BHP Billiton that is being pushed through Parliament with bi-partisan support.

BHP Billiton is not bound by the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988 in the “Stuart Shelf Area” of some 1.5 percent of the area of SA around the Olympic Dam mine.

Aboriginal heritage obligations that apply to every other miner or developer do not apply to the Big Australian for the 70-year extended period of the Roxby Indenture, and the state further agreed that this can only be changed in future with the agreement of the company. (more…)

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