BHP’s Olympic Dam copper mine out of action after storm hits

Wild electrical storms have put BHP’s Olympic Dam copper mine out of action with the company scrambling to assess the damage and how long it will take to restart operations.

BHP said transmission lines supplying Olympic Dam and the town of Roxby Downs, where most of its workforce is based, had suffered structural damage.

Wild electrical storms have put BHP’s Olympic Dam copper mine out of action, with the company scrambling to assess the damage and how long it will take to restart operations.

The storms, which lashed northern South Australia with high winds and thousands of lightning strikes, damaged transmission towers carrying power to Olympic Dam and the rest of the region.

BHP said transmission lines supplying Olympic Dam and the town of Roxby Downs, where most of its workforce is based, had suffered structural damage.

It remains unclear how long it will take to resume work at Olympic Dam, which has operated relatively trouble-free since freak storms in 2016 that caused a 15-day shutdown.

The 2016 outage cost BHP about $137m and led to fierce debate about reliance on renewable energy in the state.

Parts of South Australia were hit with 130km/h wind gusts, and over 130,000 lightning strikes in 24 hours. Picture: Instagram

BHP said it was working with South Australian poles-and-wires company ElectraNet to gauge the extent of the damage and the timeline for restoring power.

“Electrical storms in South Australia’s northern region yesterday caused structural damage to transmission lines, including the two lines that supply Olympic Dam and Roxby Downs,” a BHP spokeswoman said.

“ElectraNet crews are working to restore power as soon as possible, and we are working with them to better understand the scale of the impact and recovery timelines.

“In the interim, back-up generation and business continuity plans are in place.”

In the meantime, Olympic Dam is shutdown with BHP relying on back-up generators to supply power needed for care and maintenance.

ElectraNet described the storms as a “significant weather event” that had damaged the high-voltage network.

“ElectraNet crews are working to restore power as soon as possible. Further updates will be provided as investigations continue,” it said.

BHP is in the throes of integrating the Carrapateena and Prominent Hill mines it acquired in last year’s $9.6bn takeover of OZ Minerals, with plans to grow copper production by 50 per cent to more than 500,000 tonnes a year and then to 650,000 tonnes by the mid-2030s.

Those plans involve upgrades of the power network.

It is understood Carrapateena, Prominent Hill and Oak Dam remain operating in the wake of the Thursday night storms.

Originally published as BHP’s Olympic Dam copper mine out of action after storm hits