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Is the worlds largest open cut mine going to be in Australia?
Is the worlds largest open cut mine going to be in Australia?
According to Australian Mining Giant BHP Billiton, the Olympic Dam Mine in South Australia is the world's fourth largest remaining copper and gold deposit and the largest known uranium deposit in the world.
The Olympic Dam Project went into production in 1988 and it also contains significant quantities of silver.
THE world's biggest maker of construction and mining equipment, Caterpillar together with BHP Billiton, is in negotiations with the Rann government to invest heavily in South Australia ahead of a proposed expansion by BHP Billiton of its massive Olympic Dam mine.
The talks, which are understood to be in their early stages, are the strongest sign yet that the state government expects BHP to give the go-ahead early next year to create the world's largest open-cut mine in the far north of South Australia.
Olympic Dam has the world's biggest uranium deposit, which, along with its copper and gold deposits, gives it a life of more than 100 years.
State Mineral Resources Development Minister Tom Koutsantonis yesterday said he was very confident the project's draft environmental impact statement would meet the requirements of the federal, South Australian and Northern Territory governments.
Caterpillar last month said its sales would hit $US50 billion ($50.1bn) in 2011, up from $US42bn last year.
An industry source said if the Olympic Dam expansion was approved, BHP would "make the biggest order of trucks and other mining equipment in history". The relevant governments are expected to reach a final decision on the project in the second half of 2011, according to BHP Billiton.
"The tough logistical issues such as how we get mining equipment here, how and where it is assembled and how we get it all up to Olympic Dam needs to be sorted out," the source said.
Having already provided skilled CAT dealer trained heavy equipment fitters to remote locations such as the PNG Gold mines, New Caledonian Nickel projects and remote Australian mine sites Central Queensland Site Services is already at an advanced stage with talks regarding the provision of Dealer Trained Heavy Equipment Fitters for ODP.
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Is the worlds largest open cut mine going to be in Australia?
An industry source said if the Olympic Dam expansion was approved, BHP would "make the biggest order of trucks and other mining equipment in history".
