BHP SA Project To Take Half Of State’s Power

BHP Billiton will need nearly half of South Australia's current electricity supply to power its vastly expanded Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine，which is located 600km northwest of Adelaide. BHP wrote to potential suppliers this month revealing that power demand for the mine was expected to hit 690 megawatts when it reaches full production in 10 years, up 170 megawatts, or 30% on previous forecasts. That represents nearly 42% of South Australia's total electricity consumption and nearly half of Adelaide's power supply. A company spokeswoman described the request for 690mW of power as an estimate. "The expansion project remains in pre-feasibility and is yet to be approved," she said. But in correspondence to the state's power suppliers, dated March 5 and marked "commercial in confidence", BHP calls for expressions of interest to supply the power. The correspondence was followed by the company asks suppliers to address three supply options: power generation at the Olympic Dam site, elsewhere in the state, or a combination of both.