Antinuclear

Former South Australian Premier Mike Rann – a uranium legacy in tatters

In the end, they weren’t able to deliver the new jobs, the billions in taxes and the mining boom.
The Olympic Dam expansion is now a genuine “mirage in the desert”…..

How Olympic Dam became a mirage in the desert, Crikey, by Kevin Naughton of InDaily, 23 Aug 12, It’s seven years since an excited Premier Mike Rann and his then-deputy Kevin Foley started briefing media executives about an imminent mining boom. Central to the spruik was BHP’s new estimation of Olympic Dam, the copper, gold and uranium mine in South Australia that it had just bought from Western Mining Corporation……

Ousted by the party’s powerful right wing in July, Rann brokered a deal to hang on until late October, so he could see the amended Olympic Dam Indenture Agreement deal through Parliament, adding to his legacy. That legacy now has a hole in it; on a political scale, larger than the one BHP talked of digging.

In a curious political twist dating back 30 years when the ALP was split over whether the original mine should go ahead, Rann labelled it a “mirage in the desert”. Rann had come to SA in 1977 as an anti-uranium campaigner from New Zealand and scored a job with then-premier Don Dunstan. Dunstan resigned in 1979 and incoming Liberal premier David Tonkin became an advocate for mining in the state’s north, but the numbers in Parliament were tight.

In 1982, Labor MP Norm Foster resigned from the party and crossed the
floor to allow the original Olympic Dam Indenture Agreement to pass
the upper house. Labor returned to office later that year, but by then
it had taken a pro-mining stance through incoming premier John Bannon.
Rann worked for Bannon and later, in 1985, he would also enter
Parliament.

At a federal level, the ALP amended its ban on uranium mining at its
annual conference in Hobart, clearing the way for the three mines
policy that gave the Hawke government the flexibility to approve
Olympic Dam. The mine, owned by WMC, was commissioned in 1988 and the
township of Roxby Downs was built to service it……..
A leaked US embassy cable found among the pile of WikiLeaks documents
last year revealed BHP had delayed the expansion of Olympic Dam during
the global financial crisis. The cable, from the US Consul-General in
Melbourne to the Secretary of State in Washington, was sent following
a visit by the Consul-General Michael E. Thurston to the mine site in
April 2009:

“BHP’s manager for integrated planning, Barry Hewlett told
Consul-General that the halving of copper prices will delay expansion
of the facilities by at least one year, but BHP still intends to
release its environmental impact statement on May 1 for public review.
The downturn in commodities prices has forced BHP to shelve several
capital investment projects and to cut 200 positions (120 of whom were
contractors) at the mine.”

As foreshadowed in the cable, BHP released its preliminary EIS on May
1, 2009. The cable also revealed that BHP’s intention at the time was
to conduct a staged expansion:

“Expansion of the mine’s uranium business will be carried out
gradually in order to avoid ‘flooding the market’.”

The GFC-induced delay gave BHP plenty of time to pull together its
environmental studies. A 15,000-page draft EIS version was given to
the state government in early December 2010. The document addressed
concerns regarding the proposed desalination plant at Point Lowly, the
long-term impact on groundwater, on-site waste disposal and sourcing
electricity from renewable sources.
In October 2011 the federal and state governments signed off on the
environmental framework for the project.

The South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy joined in the
political chorus saying the environmental approval heralded the coming
of the state’s long-awaited mining boom. ….
BHP officials said in October last year a decision would be made in
the first quarter of 2012. That pushed out to mid-year and then
finally, to yesterday’s announcement that it wanted to go back to the
drawing board.

Today, Mike Rann is no longer premier. He’s reportedly on his way to
London later this year to take up a top diplomatic posting there. His
former deputy Kevin Foley has left politics and recently made an
unsuccessful tilt for the presidency of Port Adelaide Football Club.

In the end, they weren’t able to deliver the new jobs, the billions in taxes and the mining boom.
The Olympic Dam expansion is now a genuine “mirage in the desert”…..
http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/08/23/how-olympic-dam-became-a-mirage-in-the-desert/

August 23, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | history, South Australia