BHP Billiton Group's Olympic Dam copper mine in South Australia is expected to reach full production by the end of March following completing the planned A$350 million upgrades to the smelter operations, The Australian Financial Review reported Feb. 8, citing the asset president, Jacqui McGill.
The mining giant will continue to pursue technology and process improvements in the short term as it looks to reduce electricity cost, but it plans to double production at the mine by 2023 under a US$2.1 billion brownfield expansion plan.
The company has been in talks with several energy market players to cut power costs at the operation in a sustainable way.
According to the report, studies indicate that the project will have about a 20% rate of return with the brownfield expansion, which will be presented for board approval in mid-2020.
Copper production from the Olympic Dam mine declined 31% to 54,000 tonnes in the first half of BHP's fiscal 2018 due to the planned smelter upgrades.
