Sanjeev Gupta’s new big copper idea for Whyalla

WHYALLA steelworks owner Sanjeev Gupta has unveiled yet another big idea overnight, this time revealing he is looking at setting up a copper smelter and refinery in the region.

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WHYALLA steelworks owner Sanjeev Gupta wants to set up a copper smelter at Whyalla to capitalise on the cheap power flowing from his pumped hydro and solar plans.

Mr Gupta told The Advertiser he has spoken to “all the major players” in the copper sector in South Australia about the potential for a copper smelter, and feasibility studies were under way.

Copper is currently exported from SA as copper plate — produced at BHP’s Olympic Dam mine, and copper concentrate, from BHP and OZ Minerals’ Prominent Hill mine, and from next year, its Carrapateena mine.

The process to refine copper concentrate into plate copper uses a large amount of electricity, and Mr Gupta’s company GFG Alliance has plans to generate initially 1 gigawatt of power in South Australia, expanding to 10 nationally, using solar and wind power stored in disused mines as hydro power.

After the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy Annual Gala on Wednesday night he said discussions were already under way.

“We’ve spoken to everyone you could think of in terms of the supply chain,’’ he said.

“It’s not cemented yet, it’s still very much in development, but I’m very confident it works, so I’m going to continue working on it, otherwise I wouldn’t have announced it.

“We’ll bring it to conclusion in a short space.’’

A new chief executive for the copper project had been hired and will be joining the group before July.

GFG Alliance’s plans currently include:

10GW of combined energy production and storage nationally.

REFURBISHING the Whyalla steelworks.

EXPANDING the Whyalla port.

BUILDING a bigger lithium ion battery than the current Tesla battery at Jamestown, which is currently the world’s largest.

SETTING up a bank to cater for companies in the $50 -$500 million turnover range.

POTENTIALLY manufacturing electric vehicles in Adelaide.

EVENTUALLY getting involved in new housing developments in Whyalla to make it a more attractive place to live and work.

The Advertiser understands there is strong interest from other companies in exporting from the Whyalla port should extra capacity be available to third parties.

SA has 68 per cent of Australia’s known copper resources and the Olympic Dam mine has plans to vastly increase production.