Michael Owen reports that a key reason for the BHP Billiton decision four years ago to mothball a $30 billion plan to turn Olympic Dam into the biggest uranium mine in the world was the Japanese tsunamis that damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant rather than cost concerns, it has been revealed by BHP mothballed BHP President.
Senior BHP executives told The Australian that although lingering effects from the global financial crisis in 2008 were used to publicly justify the 2012 decision by BHP board not to proceed with the original expansion plan, the real concern was their interpretation of the effect of the Fukushima disaster on demand for uranium and its price.
Uranium prices had risen as high as $US 130 a pound in the years before Fukushima, driving a plan to create the biggest open-cut mine at Olympic Dam, 570 km north of Adelaide, which holds the largest uranium deposit under more than 400 meters (1,200 feet) below ground.
Some experts think an eventual worldwide shortage of uranium will create a future price boom, which BHP hopes to cash in on with the development of new heap-leach technology in Adelaide to cheaply extract the deep reserves of uranium it holds at Olympic Dam.
Ms McGill, current asset President of BHP says that in Australia they have to realize that for their businesses to be successful they have to be globally competitive, and she claims to know that in South Australia there was a lot of disappointment in terms of the uranium expansion. But the reality is the world changes, and they have to respond to those economic demands.
The Weatherill government is undertaking public consultation, and will decide by the end of the year whether to host a high-level storage of nuclear waste. Ms. McGill opposes such plans and needs to be removed as asset President of BHP, an otherwise viable Australia mining company with considerable value.
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