BHP unearths loads of uranium - Business - Business - smh.com.au

STAND by for BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam copper/uranium orebody in South Australia's far north to get a whole lot bigger, forcing an increased focus on Australia's strategic role in fuelling the global rush into nuclear power to combat fears of global warming.
A new resource estimate for the deposit is expected to be included in BHP's 2005-06 annual report, due to be released in the week starting September 18.
It is expected to show a major increase in the resource estimate, which was last updated in 2004.
Even without the expected increase, Olympic Dam already ranks as the world's fifth biggest copper resource and the number one uranium deposit.
While the resource upgrade would push the deposit up the ranks of copper deposits, it is the expected hike in the uranium resources that will create most interest. That is because of the rush to secure long-term uranium supplies for nuclear power, and China and India emerging as new buyers on the block.
Olympic Dam already accounts for 40 per cent of the world's known uranium resources, with 1.524 million tonnes (300 years at present production rates) of the radioactive material. That figure is expected to sharply increase after the September resource upgrade.
Since acquiring WMC last year for $9.2 billion, BHP has carried on with the aggressive drilling program involving 18 drill rigs aimed at determining the size of Olympic Dam.
The drilling program has shown the deposit remains open in a number of directions (notably to the south) and at depth.
Results from the drilling are being fed into a pre-feasibility study, due to be completed at the end of 2007, which assesses a $7-$10 billion expansion of Olympic Dam that would triple current production of copper and uranium to 600,000 tonnes and 15,000 tonnes respectively.
Richard Yeeles, group manager of corporate affairs for BHP's base metals division, said this week that the drilling program was "really about defining the size of the orebody".
"We're still trying to establish that," Mr Yeeles said. "We are going quite deep now and we're finding we are still in ore in some places. What that drilling is indicating is that we have yet to define the depth of the orebody.
"The previous resource estimate certainly did not include the results of the most recent deeper drilling."
Recently added to the program are five deep holes that will probe for mineralisation to a depth of 2.5 kilometres.
"There is perhaps no more than three or four [previous holes] that have gone much deeper than 1000 metres," Mr Yeeles said. "But those that have are still finding, in some sections, that they are still in ore."
The reporter owns BHP shares