SA blackout could have damaged Olympic Dam infrastructure, BHP Billiton says
THE operators of Olympic Dam have warned the mine could have faced infrastructure damage if it had been without power much longer following a statewide blackout.
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THE operators of Olympic Dam have warned the mine could have faced infrastructure damage if it had been without power much longer following a statewide blackout.
BHP Billiton lost about two weeks of production after the blackout in late September and had to bring in diesel generators to ensure its smelter stayed warm enough.
The company’s head of corporate affairs, Simon Corrigan, on Monday took Premier Jay Weatherill and ministers on a tour of the site which has returned to full production.
Mr Corrigan said the mine infrastructure could have been damaged if the site had remained without power much longer.
“We do have permanent back-up generation on-site (but) we weren’t necessarily prepared for the length of outage that we experienced,” he said.
“The team at site ... were able to bring in an additional 30MW of diesel generation in a very quick time frame and that enabled us to get enough electricity ... to keep the smelter warm.
“It was certainly a concern through that period ... that there was the potential for damage to the infrastructure.
“If there had been damage to infrastructure then it would have meant that we would have been out of production for a longer period of time than what we were and that flow on effect means additional costs for the business.”
Mr Corrigan said the company was now “reviewing what our options are in terms of back-up generation”.
However, he reiterated that “as an industry that is connected to the national electricity market, we do have an expectation that we’re able to secure electricity off the grid, at an affordable price and in a manner that provides security to our operations”.
“There’s clearly an issue there,” he said.
Mr Weatherill confirmed that he discussed energy security with BHP Billiton managers during the visit.
He noted the company was “considering their own local generation options” but argued the Government was “working very hard” on providing a range of power sources across South Australia and secure interconnection to interstate supplies.
Mr Weatherill argued that the severe storm that caused September’s blackout was “fundamentally ... why it (power supply to the state’s north) was down for as long as it was”.
While in Roxby Downs, the Premier also announced that the State Government and BHP Billiton are investing $2 million each into a new early-learning and family services centre in the town.
The upgraded facilities will be located in the current Roxby Downs Area School and are expected to be completed in 2018.
Services could include health, parenting support, community development, childcare and early childhood education.
The Government has also invested $3.5 million to teach science, mathematics and engineering at Roxby Downs Area School.
