How big is the underground mine at Olympic Dam?
How big is the underground mine at Olympic Dam?
Olympic Dam is made up of underground and surface operations and operates a fully integrated processing facility from ore to metal. The underground mine is made up of more than 450 kilometres of underground roads and tunnels. Ore mined underground is hauled by an automated train system to crushing, storage and ore hoisting facilities.
When is the next maintenance campaign for Olympic Dam?
Preparations are well advanced for the next Smelter Campaign Maintenance to be executed early in FY2022. Olympic Dam has a range of future growth options under consideration as part of its sustained, long-term growth strategy, from incremental debottlenecking through to large scale investments.
Why is the Kalta decline important to Olympic Dam?
Olympic Dam began operating its third access ramp or decline, opening up the southern mine area. The new decline, known as the Kalta decline, supports productivity and potential growth at the mine as it improves traffic flow for Olympic Dam’s underground trucking fleet.
How is copper extracted from the Olympic Dam?
Ore mined underground is hauled by an automated train system to crushing, storage and ore hoisting facilities. The processing plant consists of two grinding circuits in which high-quality copper concentrate is extracted from sulphide ore through a flotation extraction process.
When did the Brumadinho tailings dam failure happen?
[Full screen] The Brumadinho dam disaster occurred on 25 January 2019 when Dam I, a tailings dam at the Córrego do Feijão iron ore mine, 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) east of Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil, suffered a catastrophic failure.
When did the Olympic Dam mine start producing copper?
A second Environmental Impact Statement was approved, allowing the mine to expand production up to 350,000 tonnes of copper per annum. In 1998 the mine poured its 500th bar of gold. Two years later the mine produced 200,000 tonnes of copper in a year for the first time.
How are cuttlefish affected by Olympic Dam mine?
The Point Lowly cuttlefish aggregation may be impacted by Olympic Dam desalination plant brine. Seawater desalination had been considered by Western Mining Corporation as early as 1997, but at that time it was considered to be neither economically nor environmentally viable.
Where did the mining dam collapse in Brazil?
On Jan. 25, a mining dam that sat above Brumadinho, a large town in southeastern Brazil, collapsed and unleashed a tidal wave of waste and mud that engulfed homes, businesses and residents in its path. It killed at least 157 people; 182 are still missing. It was one of the deadliest mining accidents in Brazilian history —…