BHP’s $9.6 billion plan to consolidate and expand the South Australian copper industry has hit turbulence after police and regulators launched investigations into a power struggle within the group that controls the native title at its Olympic Dam and OZ Minerals’ Carrapateena mines.

Efforts by BHP to strike a lucrative new land use agreement for Olympic Dam and nearby copper prospects are in limbo amid organisational chaos within the Kokatha Aboriginal Corporation arising from a controversial annual meeting of the native title group last month.