Does Olympic Dam’s big spend require a modern uranium sale price?
The US$5.8 billion BHP Billiton Olympic Dam project is planned to become the world’s biggest uranium producer, the third or fourth largest copper mine, and one of Australia’s largest gold mines. Author: Ross Louthean Posted: Monday , 21 May 2007 PERTH – A daunting statistic for BHP Billiton is that its major mine expansion at the huge Olympic Dam copper-uranium-gold mine in South Australia’s far north is being projected to set a new global cost development record of $A7 billion ($US5.8 B). While the uranium price will be doing a lot of meandering on the price, and the currency exchange rate graphs between now and 2011, it is certain that the massive expansion at this remote mine will be forged on an uranium price well above the contracts set in the tough times of a decade or so ago. Finding out what existing and proposed pricing deals for Olympic Dam is a clandestine issue at this stage and one that in hard contract terms may not yet be fully set. Many established uranium miners have l
