Olympic Dam Operations (ODO) is owned and operated by BHP Billiton, having secured control of WMC in 2005. It is by far the largest low-grade uranium deposit in the world, and one of only three uranium mines presently operating in Australia.

The mine is located in central South Australia on the rim of the Lake Eyre Basin in arid rangelands country, a short way to the north of the mining township of Roxby Downs . Copper and uranium are the principle minerals being mined with gold and silver also being extracted (in fact in the initial discovery, Olympic Dam was characterised as a copper-gold deposit with uranium as a contaminant).

The mine now produces around 5,000 tonnes of uranium oxide per year, and 210,000 tonnes of copper.

This place will soon have the dubious honour of having created one of the largest radioactive tailings dumps on earth. More than 10 million tonnes of tailings are added every year to the 60 million tonnes already sitting on the surface.

The tailings dump currently covers some 500 ha, but this may reach 1,000 ha in the long term, a century from now with up to 2,300 million tonnes of tailings.)

Olympic Dam's infamy stems in part from its thirst: the mine draws around 30 million litres of water per day from the Great Artesian Basin to process the ore. The Great Artesian Basin is a vast and ancient body of water that lies deep under the surface of central Australia.

BHPB is currently undertaking feasibility studies on tripling the output from Olympic Dam. This would probably require moving from underground operations to open cut, which will create the largest mine void on the surface of the planet. The operators are also considering building a new power station, and a desalination plant on the coast to sate the mine's enormous thirst for water.

The Tailings Dump

The Olympic Dam ore is very low grade. What happens to the millions of tonnes of finely crushed radioactive waste rock?

The Health Legacy

Every stage of the nuclear fuel chain is damaging to your health, and workers in the uranium mining industry suffer the highest doses of all radiation workers.

The Ancient Mound Springs

As BHPB pumps billions of litres of precious water out of the ground, the sacred Mound Springs are drying up.

BHPB

Find out a little more about the mining giant that runs Roxby.

UPDATED JULY 30, 2006

Olympic Dam Photo Gallery

Olympic Dam in Brief