MARK COLVIN: The head of BHP Billiton, Marius Kloppers, says he cannot guarantee that the company will redevelop the Olympic Dam mine in the future.
South Australian govt and BHP Billiton gloomy about the future of Olympic Dam uranium mine
Kloppers’ bleak Olympic hopes by: Michael Owen, The Australian September 04, A BLEAK outlook has been presented by BHP Billiton chief executive Marius Kloppers for an expanded Olympic Dam mine ever operating in South Australia.
Mr Kloppers yesterday held talks with Premier Jay Weatherill in Adelaide to explain why the miner’s board last month indefinitely shelved the $28.7 billion project. He emerged from the hour-long meeting to say there was no timeframe for the project and no guarantee it would ever go ahead.
This came more than a week after The Weekend Australian revealed that Mr Kloppers had warned the expansion might never happen because the project was now dependent on the uncertain development of cheaper “leaching” technology to expand the mine’s future production. He had said that unlike “optimistic” scientists, the miner was “insufficiently certain that an eventual project will happen”. Mr Kloppers reiterated that message yesterday after meeting with the Premier. “We have been working and expending a lot of money on trying to make this project a reality,” Mr Kloppers said…… “I can’t give you any timeframe on how these things could progress.”
Asked if he could give a guarantee the mine would be redeveloped, he said: “No, I cannot.”
Mr Weatherill tried to maintain a positive message, but conceded the current model planned for the expansion “does not work”.. they are not able to advance a time when the technology will be proven, nor are they able to give us certainty about whether the technology will be capable of being proven, and therefore they will not be in a position to give us certainty about when the mine proceeds.”…
Mr Weatherill said that after his meeting yesterday, any future expansion was even further away than he had previously thought……
The opposition said all of the government’s tough-talking about BHP meeting its December deadline to go-ahead with the expansion and the project’s benefits for the state, had proven to be “bluff and bluster”. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/kloppers-bleak-olympic-hopes/story-fn59niix-1226464289847
BHP talking about leaching methods for Olympic Dam uranium mine
AUDIO No guarantee for Olympic Dam mine expansion ABC Radio P.M. http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3581996.htm Nicola Gage reported this story Sept 3 2012,
“……NICOLA GAGE: Mr Weatherill says he was informed on the different technologies BHP are looking into. That included new forms of conveyor belts, and the potential use of heap leach technology.
JAY WEATHERILL: Which has been investigated in laboratories and is, over a period of six years, has been scaled up to a certain size in terms of tests, but needs to be tested further to see whether it can be brought to scale and be used for full production.
NICOLA GAGE: Heap leach technology was flagged as an alternative extraction option in BHP’s original environmental impact statement in May 2009. The company already uses it in South America.
Professor Bill Skinner specialises in environmental surface science at the University of South Australia.
BILL SKINNER: There is a precedent for heap leaching technology in Australia, so it’s not exactly a unique process in Australia.
NICOLA GAGE: While it might be considered a new technology in the public arena, the process has been around for years. But Professor Skinner says difficulties with constancy made it expensive.
BILL SKINNER: In the last few years, quite a lot more has been learned about the process that goes on inside a heap leach, and how one treats the ore in order to make sure that one heap behaves very similar to another, and sort of keep reproducibility up, because after all, that reproducibility of the process governs the constant, if you like, valuable recovery from those heaps.
NICOLA GAGE: Questions have been raised about whether another environmental impact statement would be needed with any future expansion. Premier Jay Weatherill.
JAY WEATHERILL: Because we don’t know what the technology is, it’s, it becomes difficult for us to make an assessment about whether there is any additional environment risk. We know that there are some leaching technologies that are used in different parts of the state, but on the face of it, yes, they do raise environmental issues. So, of course, there’s the feasibility of the technology, but then there’s the environmental approvals that may go with that.
NICOLA GAGE: The company’s 15,000-page environmental impact statement expires in 2016. …
Australian Dr Tilman Ruff co-chair of International Physicians for the Prevention Of Nuclear War
Dave Sweeney, 2 Sept 12, The International Physicians for the Prevention Of Nuclear War Hiroshima Congress has finished up and there was enough positive content and connections to make it all worthwhile from an Australian uranium perspective. The final conference statement re-lman Ruff affirms IPPNW’s position that the “entire nuclear chain – including uranium mining and processing, the production of energy from fissionable materials in dangerous reactors, and nuclear weapons themselves – is fraught with risks to health, our environment and our security..”…so we continue to build the voices and momentum against the uranium industry.
ICAN’s Tilman Ruff was elected as a co-Chair of IPPNW – this is both a recognition of his important and sustained work and a positive sign of increased Australian involvement in the global nuclear free movement.
A group of around 25 of us – including half a dozen Australians – are now heading to participate in three days of talking and listening about the implications and impacts of Fukushima at events in Tokyo and through a visit to the region.
In the week where BHP – the world’s biggest miner – has cited Fukushima as one of the reasons it has shelved its long held plan to develop Olympic Dam into the world’s biggest uranium mine it is timely to be here and to help ensure the reality of Australia’s uranium exports remains on the radar.
With solidarity and great regard for everybody’s efforts to nail this toxic trade,
How Lynas Corporation has mucked up its rare earths reprocessing project
The radioactive residue produced is the responsibility of the company and if necessary, it will be returned to its place of origin.
And what might be the place of origin’s attitude?
“National legislation stipulates,” the WA minister for mines and petroleum has stated, “that Australia will not accept responsibility for any waste product produced from offshore processing of resources purchased in Australia such as from iron ore, mineral sands, and the rare earths produced by Lynas Corporation”.
“The Malaysian finding that Lynas must take the radioactive waste back to Australia may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back with the Lynas effort. This slight detail requires the governments of both Australia and the state of Western Australia to acquiesce in taking the waste from a plant that should have been built in Australia in the first place but wasn’t
LAMP going out for Lynas, 9 News, by Greg Peel, As recent FNArena articles on the subject of the rare earth metals space have noted, the global race to compete with China on rare earth element (REE) production has now come down to a mere handful of names including two stand-outs, and a big chunk of daylight to third. (See, for example: Rare Earths Done And Dusted? No, It’s Xeno-Time). Those two companies are Molycorp in the US and Australia’s own Lynas Corp . A year ago, it looked like Lynas had moved ahead of Molycorp.
According to research and opinion from REE specialist Hallgarten & Company, that is certainly no longer the case. Indeed, Lynas shareholders may be in some trouble. Continue reading
BHP dumped Olympic Dam uranium expansion because the nuclear industry is in crisis
Lies, damned lies and Olympic Dam sized lies, http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/lies-damned-lies-and-olympic-dam-sized-lies/ Independent Australia 23 August, 2012 Managing editor David Donovan reports on Tony Abbott’s “dishonest, self-interested fear campaign” about BHP’s decision to defer the Olympic Dam expansion; before environment editor Sandi Keane provides some disturbing background to this controversial project. In what has been described as
“…one of the most dishonest, self-interested fear campaigns … [ever] seen in Australian politics,”
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott blamed the mothballing of the Olympic Dam uranium mine expansion on the mining and carbon taxes, before throwing in “industrial militancy” for ideological good measure.
In an excruciating interview on ABC 7.30, in which Abbott attempted to stick to his predetermined script, Leigh Sales’ unexpectedly direct questioning drew him unstuck.
In a telling moment, Abbott admitted to not having read the reasons for BHP making their decision, but dismissed that fact as irrelevant, emphasising the impact of the carbon and mining taxes — despite the mining tax only being levied on coal and iron ore mines.
To paraphrase The Opposition Leader’s icon:
“We will decide the reasons businesses make their internal commercial decisions and the manner in which they make them.”
For the record, the reasons offered by the Opposition Leader are in stark contrast to those given by BHP boss Marius Kloppers for the decision.
So, in other words, no, no and no, Mr Abbott.
The elephant in the room was, obviously, the fact that the nuclear industry is in crisis mode in the wake of the radioactive catastrophe at Fukushima last year, causing Japan to have no operating nuclear plants at present and Germany to make the decision to shut down all its nuclear plants by 2020. In light of that, it is perfectly reasonable for BHP to put this project in abeyance until it can be sure there will be a market for uranium — after they spend $30 billion to dig the biggest pit in human history.
One thing BHP, regrettably, is unlikely to have considered is the fact that the Olympic Dam mine expansion was always a rather dicey proposition — facing immense and concerted opposition from Indigenous and environmental groups.
This is because, firstly, there is significant evidence that the native title process entered into with Indigenous groups was flawed, perhaps even fraudulent (something IA is currently investigating).
In addition, as IA reported last year, Olympic Dam is an environmental catastrophe waiting to happen, due to inadequate safeguards for the immense amount of exposed radioactive tailings that will be left lying around after BHP removes an unprecedented amount of overburden to get to the ore.
The following is the Independent Australia report by environment editor Sandi Keane, originally published on 18 October 2011, in which she discusses the disturbing health and environmental implications of the Olympic Dam expansion.
Uranium mine expansion: unleashing radioactive dust storms across Australia… http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/lies-damned-lies-and-olympic-dam-sized-lies/
Australian uranium miner Paladin delivers an even bigger loss than last year’s
Uranium group Paladin’s loss widens, Business Report August 30 2012 Australian-listed Paladin Energy‚ a uranium producer with projects in Australia and two operating mines in Africa‚ delivered a net loss for the year to June 30 of US$172.8m‚ an increase of 110% from the previous year’s US$82.3m loss. This translates into a loss per share of US21.1 cents form a loss of US11.1 cents the previous year. No dividend was declared.
Traditional Aboriginal owner leads renewed fight against Yeelirrie uranium mining
Traditional owner opposes Yeelirrie development http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-28/traditional-owner-opposes-yeelirrie-development/4227384 Aug 28, 2012 A traditional owner is planning to step up protests against uranium mining at Yeelirrie, near Wiluna. Kado Muir says the new owners of the Yeelirrie deposit in the Goldfields will have a tough time trying to develop a mine at the site.
BHP Billiton has announced it is selling the deposit to Canadian-based Cameco.The Minister for Mines, Norman Moore, has welcomed the deal saying Cameco is more likely to develop a mine at the site.
Mr Muir says he is concerned about the change of ownership. “With Cameco in place, it does cause quite a bit of concern for us because they are a company who will seek to develop the mine as quickly and as soon as they can,” he said.
“That just adds impetus to our campaign to ensure that WA remains a uranium-free state.”
Mr Muir believes the public will not support uranium mining in WA. “We are worried about it,” he said. “[Cameco] are up against the wall in terms of time lines and the people of WA have not yet had the chance to voice their concerns about
uranium mining at the ballot box. “There is no broad community support for uranium mining in WA.”
Mad monk Abbott also ignorant – about uranium mining
Abbott Out Of His Depth On Mining, New Matilda , 27 Aug 2012 Does Tony Abbott understand the Australian mining sector? His inept response to the Olympic Dam announcement showed him mangling the basics of public policy, writes Ian McAuley Last week BHP-Billiton announced that their profit had fallen from $US32 billion in 2010-11 to a mere $US27 billion last year, and that they were shelving their $30 billion Olympic Dam expansion. . Tony Abbott’s commentary on the event exposed him as an Opposition Leader way out of his depth and brought forth confusing statements about the progress of the resource boom.
Abbott’s claim that the carbon tax and the minerals resource rent tax (MRRT) were behind the decision to drop the Olympic Dam expansion was quite at odds with the company’s announcement that the decision was about capital construction costs and “subdued commodity prices”.
The resources at Olympic Dam are uranium, copper and gold, none of which is subject to the MRRT. If anything, global action on climate change should have been expected to boost uranium demand, but the price of uranium oxide has fallen from a peak of $US290/kg in 2007 to around $US110 now, the Fukushima accident and the tumbling price of gas and photovoltaics having dampened any expectation of a price recovery…. http://newmatilda.com/2012/08/27/mining-puts-tony-out-his-depth
Be wary that BHP might push for further environmental concessions for Olympic Dam uranium site
The Guardian Australia 29 Aug 12, “………South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill is also doing his best to sound optimistic in the light of the Olympic Dam decision. Though his predecessor Mike Rann signed a shamefully generous indenture agreement with BHP Billiton in December last year, it wasn’t enough to satisfy international capital. BHP may use the current unsettling situation to press for the bending of the environmental rules to allow for the speedy introduction of the
notorious acid leeching extraction method at the site….
Abbott will step up the anti-union assault even further than Gillard to deliver the conditions transnational investors want.
Lost in all of these events and threatened changes are the wishes and needs of the Australian people. They don’t want a future dependent on exports of uranium to countries like the US where they enable the production of nuclear weapons and depleted uranium shells. They don’t want the wishes of the Aboriginal people ignored or the environment sacrificed to boost the bottom line of transnational corporations.
They don’t want to have to beg profit-bloated transnationals to make a suitable tax contribution out of the fortunes still being made out of resources that rightfully belong to the whole people. They want a sustainable, pro-people economy….
http://www.cpa.org.au/guardian/2012/1562/01-workers-warned.html
BHP passes off dubious West Australian uranium “asset” to Cameco
BHP offloads Australian uranium project to Cameco August 30, 2012 Business Recorder, BHP Billiton on Monday said it was selling one of Australia’s largest underdeveloped uranium mines to Cameco for US $430 million, just days after delaying its Olympic Dam copper and uranium project. The world’s biggest miner said an agreement had been signed for its wholly-owned Yeelirrie uranium deposit in Western Australia, and was awaiting clearance from Australian regulators and the state government. ….
Chief executive of Melbourne-based BHP Marius Kloppers last week said the company had no plans to develop any uranium projects other than Olympic Dam. “Generally speaking those mines are too small a scale to fit in our portfolio and the product, quite candidly, is too small to fit into our portfolio on its own,” he said. http://www.brecorder.com/agriculture-a-allied/183/1232067/
Rally opposing Sydney’s Hunters Hill radioactive waste going to residential suburbs
Fallout spreads from uranium waste dumping plan http://parramatta-advertiser.whereilive.com.au/news/story/fallout-spreads-from-uranium-waste-dumping-plan/ 29 AUG 12 BY ELIAS JAHSHAN AROUND 200 residents attended a rally at Lidcombe’s Remembrance Park last Saturday to protest the NSW government’s plans to transfer radioactive waste from an old Hunters Hill radium smelter to residential areas, including a facility at Lidcombe.
The rally was organised by the Auburn Asian Welfare Centre and Soka Gakkai International Australia, a Buddhist and non-government organisation.
A spokeswoman from SGI Australia said waste products from at least 500 tonnes of uranium ore processed at the former Hunters Hill smelter remained in the soil, and will be sent to the Office of Environment and Heritage-owned facility at Joseph St, Lidcombe.
At the rally, Monash University environmental engineer Gavin Mudd acknowledged that radioactive waste needed to be removed from Hunters Hill, but said the problem was a lack of transparency in the plans to dispose of the contaminated soil.
Dr Mudd believed the best place for that waste was the Australian Nuclear Research and Development Organisation facility at Lucas Heights.
“The best place is not Kemps Creek, and it’s not (Lidcombe),” he added.
Lucas Heights is prohibited by law from accepting anything other than Commonwealth waste. Dr Mudd said the soil from Hunters Hill would be classed as state-owned waste.
“Politicians can change legislation quickly when the will is there,” he said. THE STORY SO FAR
– The state government wants to rehabilitate and sell the land at the Hunters Hill uranium smelter site, which closed in 1915.
– Contaminated soil waste is to be transferred to a Lidcombe facility.
– November 2011: Auburn Council unanimously votes to become a nuclear-free zone, but state government can still override this vote.
– February: Auburn RSL delivers 1000 signatures for a petition against the plans.
– March: Rally held at Auburn Town Hall.
BHP Billiton downsizes Olympic Dam project, as uranium market collapses
BHP Billiton Shrinks Project Team for Olympic Dam Mine, WSJ, BY ROBB M. STEWART, August 29, 2012, MELBOURNE—BHP Billiton Ltd. is reducing the size of the project team working on scaled-back plans to expand its Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in South Australia, with roughly 140 employees facing transfer or lay off.
Melbourne-based BHP, the world’s largest mining company by market value, last week cut or deferred billions of dollars in proposed investments and said it wouldn’t approve any new major project until at least the middle of next year as costs continue to soar and commodity prices slump. The highest-profile casualty of the clamp down on spending was its US$30 billion Olympic Dam project, and …subscribers only http://online.wsj.com/article SB10000872396390444506004577618130532297156.html
Collapse of uranium market led to BHP and Cameco halting uranium mining projects
He [BHP CEO Marius Kloppers] said demand for uranium had collapsed after the Fukushima nuclear incident last year
The Olympic Dam and Yeelirrie shocks from BHP came hot on the heels of the decision by Canada’s Cameco to go slow on a development of its Kintyre uranium project in WA’s Great Sandy Desert
Barnett tells miner to sell asset to other developers BY: ANDREW BURRELL The Australian August 27, 2012 BHP Billiton has abandoned its controversial Yeelirrie uranium project in Western Australia, with chief executive Marius Kloppers saying the deposit is too small for the mining giant’s portfolio at a time of collapsing global demand. Continue reading
South Australia can now develop its diversified economy, with the Olympic mirage gone
Mining in SA is still a minnow compared with the state’s traditional economic base. Manufacturing accounts for about 11 
per cent of economic activity, agriculture 6 per cent and mining 4 per cent, boosted by high commodity prices…. despite government rhetoric, SA is far from a mining state.
those things that are the reason why South Australia existed: our agriculture, fishing, aquaculture, food processing,
Prospects take a dive with shelving of Olympic Dam expansion BY: SARAH MARTIN, SA POLITICAL REPORTER The Australian August 25, 2012 BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam mine expansion would have created a hole
in the ground as deep as South Australia’s highest peak.
An open pit 4km long, 5km wide and 1km deep was to be dug across five years to create the world’s largest copper and uranium mine at Roxby Downs in the state’s outback, 560km north of Adelaide.
But it was not to be.
{ at left, BHP’s CEO Marius Kloppers and former S.A. Premier Mike Rann, in the heady days of their ill-judged fervour for Olympic Dam) BHP’s decision this week to shelve the $30 billion project has left SA without the mining boom it was promised. For almost a 
decade, former premier Mike Rann and treasurer Kevin Foley spruiked the transformative power of the mine project,
proclaiming it an economic panacea for the state……
The mine’s promise continued to be sold by the Weatherill administration after Rann’s departure, with budget figures predicated on the mine going ahead, even while a global commodity downturn made its prospects doubtful…..
Adelaide-based chief economist of Prescott Securities Darryl Gobbett
says the government had promised a mining boom that would not
eventuate.
“I think they have hyped up what was going to happen before the
event,” he says. …… Continue reading
BHP dumps its Western Australian uranium project, as well as the South Australian one
BHP abandons WA uranium project Business Spectator, , 27 Aug 2012 Plans for BHP Billiton Ltd to develop its controversial WA Yeelirrie uranium site have been let go after its chief executive, Marius Kloppers, said the deposit is too small for its portfolio with the company bracing for a decline in worldwide demand, …. http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/BHP-abandons-WA-uranium-project-pd20120827-XJSPJ?opendocument&src=rss
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