Contractor lays off Olympic Dam workers, in view of doubts on its future
BHP reviews contractors, staff amid project uncertainty Business Spectator, 24 Jul 2012 In the latest sign that BHP Billiton Ltd may not approve the expansion of its Olympic Dam copper-uranium mine in South Australia later this year, the miner is conducting a review of contractors and staff across its mining mega-projects, looking for potential cost-saving cuts, according to The Australian Financial Review.
In the wake of BHP’s indication recently that it may not approve its three mining mega-projects before December, the company in charge of conducting a feasibility study on the $US20 billion-plus Olympic Dam project laid off several workers last week after its contract expired, according to the AFR.
The company, Jacobs Engineering, made the layoffs on the basis that it could not justify the staffing levels unless BHP’s board approved the project….. If the BHP board fails to approve the Olympic Dam project by December 15 the South Australian government will have the right to allow an indenture agreement setting royalty rates for 45 years to lapse. … http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/BHP-reviews-contractors-staff-amid-project-uncerta-pd20120723-WGLXZ?OpenDocument&src=hp10&WELCOME=AUTHENTICATED%20REMEMBER
Olympic Dam expansion in doubt, say South Australian Liberals
SA Libs say Olympic Dam in doubt THE AUSTRALIAN AAP July 25, 2012 A DECLINING world economy may force BHP Billiton to delay a $30 billion expansion of the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in South Australia, the state opposition says. Mineral Resources spokesman Mitch Williams says there is growing evidence world economic woes will prompt the company to delay the project, including an Access Economics report which points to the mining boom finishing in two years.
“There is a strong chance now that the expansion won’t go ahead next year as BHP Billiton puts the brakes on its global investments, especially long-term ones like Olympic Dam,” Mr Williams said in a statement on Wednesday.
BHP Billiton has until the end of the year to finally approve the expansion or face the need to renegotiate approvals with the state government…. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/sa-libs-say-olympic-dam-in-doubt/story-fn3dxiwe-1226434685135
Tiny attendance at Dr Helen Caldicott’s Roxby Down talk, as BHP Billiton films the meeting
BHPB felt the meeting enough of a threat they sent their own film crew -57 Films- to record the full event. Somewhat sheepish when Helen challenged them as to why working for BHPB.
Dr Caldicott was outraged at what she saw with the heavy hand of the SA cops, demanding full names and addresses from protestors leaving the camp, not only the driver. Data base for ‘troublemakers’ into the future for the cops?
David Bradbury 24 July 12, If you look at the numbers you’d be very disappointed with the fruits of
our labour and cost in taking Dr Helen Caldicott to Roxby. But some things are not messured by numbers alone. The seeds must be sown and you never know when the harvest will come. Or that you will be rewarded to see the harvest on yr time. You can only do yr bit with the best intregrity and listen to the voice of guidance that comes from Spirit.
Maximum number of miners and wives there:15. Three bubs. Continue reading
Protesting BHP’s Olympic Dam – its special privileges, water guzzling, uranium to Fukushima
Mythical lizard haunts Australian uranium extractors Infoshop News, July 22 2012 Anti-nuclear protesters camping at what they describe as “the gates of hell” — that is, on the edge of BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam uranium mine in the desert of South Australia — decided to play a game of cricket on Tuesday, July 17, in order to publicize their message: Uranium isn’t Australian.
“It’s just not cricket,” they chanted, “and that’s why we picket.”
by Peter Rugh Waging Nonviolence “…….There’s no room for nature’s business in the uranium business. That’s why BHP is digging into the belly of Kalta, the sleeping lizard who, according to aboriginal legend, lives under the rocks at Olympic Dam. BHP is sucking yellow uranium poison out of Kalta’s belly and feeding it to nuclear reactors around the world.
It already takes about 9 million gallons of water a day to wash all that poison down the throats of global markets — water sucked out at no cost to BHP from the region’s only reliable freshwater source, the Great Artesian Basin. But the Melbourne-based multinational plans to expand its mining operations at Olympic from an area of about 1,700 square miles to a terrain roughly eight times that size. The $30 billion expansion would make Olympic Dam at Roxby Downs the world’s largest open-pit mine.
An additional 53 gallons of water a day will be used up should mining at Olympic expand. The amount of diesel required to extract and transport BHP’s uranium would cause South Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions to skyrocket by 12 percent.
Olympic currently operates under the Roxby Downs Indenture Act of 1982, which granted BHP exemptions from laws covering native sovereignty, public disclosure, environmental impact and water preservation. The Indenture Act was amended in 2011 , when BHP began scouting out more land. Critics say the law is essentially a contract between BHP and the South Australian government for the corporation to do what it likes.
Meanwhile, the effects of BHP’s mining are felt far beyond the Outback. Approximately 4,400 tons of Australian uranium per year are used to feed aging reactors in the United States, which jeopardize the civilian population centers that they surround . A major portion of the stuff comes from BHP. The company is to Australia’s uranium industry what Nirvana was to grunge; they’ve cornered the market…..
Prior to the Fukushima disaster , Japan — after the United States and the European Union — was Australia’s third best uranium customer, importing nearly 2,700 tons a year. The uranium fuel pellets that melted down three reactor cores at Fukushima on March 11 of last year were from Olympic Dam.
Dr. Jim Green, an anti-nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth Australia, accuses BHP of turning a blind eye to fraud and safety problems in Japan’s nuclear industry in the run-up to the meltdowns. Despite widespread documentation of data falsification and safety breaches, he says BHP continued to peddle its toxic product to the quake-prone nation in the run up to the Fukushima meltdowns…. http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20120722092133582
Lizard’s revenge: The South Australian government ignores its founding document
The uranium mine is in Kokotha country, but its impact crosses into Arabunna country to extract water for the mining. The Olympic mine expansion crosses the Mashers Faultline* itself, where there is a calculated risk of mining induced earthquakes of severe magnitude.
Lizard’s revenge: The South Australian government ignores its founding document, the Letters Patent from Britain, as though it never existed
Lismore, NSW, 18 July 2012 — The recent demonstrations against expansion of the BHP Roxby Downs uranium mine in South Australia, led by Arabunna Elder, Kevin Buzzacott, highlight how governments and mining companies ignore and completely override the sovereign rights and human rights of First Nations Peoples, writes sovereignty activist, Michael Anderson.
The last survivor of the four founders of the Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra writes: “The ongoing catastrophe of the Fukushima meltdown in Japan is fresh in our minds and the previous disaster of Chernobyl in the Ukraine still haunts us, but governments are ignoring the warnings and, instead, appear beholden to mining industry, in particular the uranium industry.”
Mr Anderson is the National Coordinator of the interim National Unity Government of the ‘Sovereign Union’, launched at the 40th anniversary of the embassy in January.
He charges that the South Australian government ignores its founding document, the Letters Patent from Britain, as though it never existed. Continue reading
Protest continues at Olympic Dam uranium mine: 5 more arrests
Protests flare again at Olympic Dam news.com.au 19 July 12, FIVE people have been arrested after renewed protest action at the Olympic Dam uranium and copper mine in South Australia’s north.
The arrests on Thursday brought to 18 the number of people taken into police custody since about 350 anti-nuclear activists converged on the area on Saturday.
The official protest was scheduled to conclude on Wednesday but up to 100 people remained in the area. Police said about 40 people blocked Olympic Way, just south of the declared protected area, on Thursday morning. They pushed a car onto the road, let down its tyres and locked the steering.
The action forced a truck to stop on the road and two men then chained themselves to the underside. They were arrested and charged with illegal interference. Three other people were charged with refusing to follow police direction.
BHP tightlipped about whether or not the big new Olympic Dam uranium mine will actually go ahead
For all the hype about its planned “biggest uranium mine in the world” at Olympic Dam, BHP is experiencing some jitters, as shareholders are not so keen on seeing the company blow $30 billion on this behemoth, before there’s a sign of any profit from this geewhiz dream of CEO Marius Kloppers.
BHP Seeks Friends in Volatile Times, Wall Street Journal, 19 July 12“…..fuel for volatility in BHP’s shares is the question of BHP’s spending discipline. Commonwealth Bank has said it remains concerned by the company’s capital allocation policy, and believes the market would rather see windfall cashflow returned to shareholders via dividends or share buybacks…
BHP has declined to comment on the progress of the multibillion dollar projects, including the expansion of the OlympicDam copper-uranium mine in South Australia …“Cuts to capex [capital expenditure] and growth profile are…likely if commodity prices weaken further than expected,” Citi analysts said.
Lizard’s revenge – David Bradbury’s daily notes on Olympic Dam anti uranium protest
I am a physician to the people, but you (the protestors at the Lizard’s Revenge camp site) 
you are physicians to a dying planet – Dr Helen Caldicott.
From David Bradbury 19 July Benny got out last night to round of applause. Fire ceremony with Uncle Kevin thanking everyone for coming.
Iris just been arrested. Going into Roxby lockup now.
Racing to protest camp. Got call just now that somehow the Lizard vehicle they wouldn’t let us take on road three days ago is on the road to mine. Cops will be pissed.
From David Bradbury 18 July Helen addresses the camp this last day. Sitting next to Uncle Kevin she said how the Lizards Revenge has inspired people all around Oz in our fight to save a dying planet. Very inspiring exchange here just now.
From David Bradbury 18 July The big day has arrived for us! Helen Caldicott is in flight as we speak headed for Roxby. We’ll pick her up midday and straight to the town meeting. Starts 1pm. Hard to know how it will go. Definitely a buzz in this town of 3-4,000 about her coming. One gets a sense some will come as result of watching When the Dust Settles. And Helen’s street cred, though many have never heard of her. Others cannot afford in their terms to hear the truth. It will cost them too much to throw in their jobs and move out.
And it’s likely the company will send its spies there to note who attends as they’ve done in the past. Roxby is a small town where everybody knows each other. Those arrested who do not want to live upto the stringent bail conditions eg stay
indefinitely away from the protest, have been shipped off to Port Augusta 270kms away and kept in the cells overnight. They will face court today. They include long term activist Benny Zables, the Masked Radiation Man. Continue reading
Video – police arrest Olympic Damn anti uranium activists at breakfast
Too often we ignore the effects of this industry because it happens away from our direct doorstep, uranium is mined here in the desert, and dumped on the homes of Aboriginal communities in the desert within Australia. But as we have been reminded again from Fukushima, radiation doesn’t discriminate, and this is a threat to the health of us all, now and into the future.
VIDEO Breakfast not Bombs http://lizardsrevenge.net/breakfast-not-bombs-media-release-17-7-2012/ Lizards Revenge 18 July 12 Activists call for “Breakfast not Bombs” as police defend what BHPBilliton aims to make the largest uranium mine in the world. At the road blockade set up to control access to the Olympic Dam mine demonstrators set up a breakfast and blockade. Their message, that the uranium from this mine and others like it contributes to the nuclear weapons industry and any expansion to this mine is an increased contribution to the industry.
Here are statements from the picnickers that have blocked the road near the Bypass rd and Olympic way from7am til 9am. 6 people were arrested with what the police describe as various offense “Breakfast not Bombs” crew reported seeing many trucks being turned around during the picnic road block. Continue reading
More from David Bradbury – Day 1 at the Lizards Revenge anti uranium festival
As if to make a mockery of the so called autonomy of the recent award of Native Title to his people, Kevin Buzzacott (pictured) had to 
get a permit from the police to drive down on a public road from his home to the north here to join the protestors yesterday.
So end of daylight going into music and dance celebration tonight and all is good. Very friendly feeling amongst everyone as people get to know their neighbors in pitched tents next to them. People chatting around camp fires, reviewing their part and impressions of today’s great march to the mine entrance gates where people dressed in very colorful outfits and hairstyles Bollywood and danced their booties off. Some amazing break dancing on the road to a very appreciative audience.
The cops who were thick in presence looked on stoney faced from behind the BHP wire and off to the sides. The cost to the taxpayer for this over policed event must be phenomenal. But we love the Land. We love the country. We know why we are here to protect country and the Future. As Uncle Kevin said at utoday’s press conference, “one bulldozer and 40,000 years is gone”.
Carbon Farming Initiative – a new enterprise for Aboriginal group
Capturing carbon, unlocking wealth for Aborigines BY: MARK SCHLIEBS AND PATRICIA KARVELAS The Australian July 13, 2012 JOHN Kite is at the helm of a newly acquired, neglected cattle station in South Australia’s outback that could soon become one of the first indigenous-owned carbon farming projects in the country.
The 56-year-old from Watarru in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in the state’s northwest has been put in charge of turning the 4900 square kilometres of scrub and rock into a money spinner for Aborigines under the Carbon Farming Initiative, which came into effect this month. Continue reading
Renowned film-maker David Bradbury will document anti-uranium protest at Olympic Dam
David Bradbury is traveling to Roxby with a small camera crew to document the actions at Olympic Dam as part of Lizard’s Revenge. He is driving down (ie. heading south) and is aware of the roadblocks the state is putting in place, but is hoping to make it down by today or tomorrow. His trip and the festival can be followed on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Bradbury/349981725057349
BHP Billiton who own the mine and run it ‘like Nazi Germany’; so one of the workers told me three years ago when I was there filming after he told me not so politely to put my camera away and ‘f- off’. The miners and the huge multi national mining giant don’t like their right to earn big money and profits ripping out the Heart of Australia and polluting the precious water supply of future generations. Continue reading
Police agree on ‘right to protest’ – but block off road 4Km from Olympic Dam uranium mine
Police block mine road to protesters, BY: MARK SCHLIEBS The Australian July 12, 2012 POLICE will set up roadblocks around BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam mine in outback South Australia, creating further anger and warnings of confrontations with anti-uranium activists who plan to “shut down” mining operations during a five-day protest at the site.
Two roads leading to the Roxby Downs mine, in the state’s remote centre, have been blocked ahead of the first day of the protest on Saturday. The road protesters planned to use has been blocked 4km from the mine’s southern gates.
Only mine workers, emergency services workers and people individually approved by police can use the roads.
Protest organisers had hoped between 200 and 2000 activists would attend the demonstration and a music festival. One organiser, Nectaria Calan, said yesterday the police were being deliberately antagonistic.
“They’re blocking a public road,” she said. “On the one hand, they’re saying we’ve got the right to protest but on the other hand they’ve already made moves to prevent us from doing so.” She said the activists would decide how the protest would proceed once they reached Roxby Downs, but would not rule out blockading the roads.
Hundreds of police reinforcements, including special operations officers, have reportedly been sent to the town….. A company spokeswoman would not confirm whether hundreds of private security contractors had been flown to Roxby Downs but said preparations had been made. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/police-block-mine-road-to-protesters/story-e6frgczx-1226423874130
Olympic Dam copper/uranium mine’s future more doubtful, with rise of RECYCLING of metals
Olympic Dam is surely under review,” said UBS mining analyst Glyn Lawcock. “It’s not an issue of finding the cash,” he
said, but rather ensuring a good return on the investment……
Further curbing the appetite for refined copper, BHP now sees recycled scrap meeting up to 50 percent of China’s overall demand in the coming year for the metal, up from 35 percent now.
there is a much bigger question mark over it [Olympic Dam new mine] now
BHP Olympic Dam delay would tighten copper supply Reuters, By James Regan SYDNEY | Fri Jul 6, 2012 “….. A 25 percent drop in benchmark international copper prices since early 2011 has eroded potential returns from the project, and the economic slowdown in top base metal consumer China has dampened the demand outlook.
BHP’s scheme to quadruple output from Olympic Dam – the fourth-largest known copper deposit and largest uranium source in the world – is one a growing number analysts believe likely to be shelved until markets stabilize…. London copper prices have fallen to around $7,650 a metric ton (1.1023 tons) from a peak over $10,000 in early 2011 as big copper buyers such as car and computer manufacturers slow consumption… Continue reading
Poor market outlook for copper/uranium will make BHP delay Olympic Dam plans
BHP May Reduce Copper Supply Reduced Demand in China Hurts Production, Wealth Daily, By Swagato Chakravorty , July 9th, 2012 After a 25 percent decline in international copper prices since 2011, BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) may need to reduce the global supply of copper from late 2013 onward should the $30 billion Olympic Dam mine
project in Australia be delayed.
The sustained drop in copper prices has affected the potential for returns on the project, and China’s cooling economy has added on to demand woes. BHP intended to expand the mine in order to increase output fourfold from what is the world’s fourth-largest known copper deposit and biggest source of uranium.
40 percent of the world’s copper demand comes from China, which also cut its interest rates last Thursday for the second time as it increasingly focuses on shoring up its economy.
BHP is working on turning the Olympic Dam, which is currently a mine, into an open pit operation.
The board will make a decision by year-end on whether or not to continue the process, which would produce 750,000 metric tons of copper and 19,000 metric tons of uranium a year.
Right now the biggest problem is figuring out whether the current levels of copper will mean an oversupply as demand slows down everywhere…. for now, the analysts advise against the sort of mining expansion BHP is planning.
Reuters reports: “Now is not exactly the right time to be thinking of bringing more copper into the market and BHP knows this,” said Gavin Wendt, a mining analyst with MineLife in Sydney.
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