Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In 2012, South Australians were disappointed by the decision by BHP Billiton to shelve a $30 billion expansion of the Olympic Dam mine at Roxby Downs. Olympic Dam is one of South Australia's most significant ore bodies with copper, uranium, gold and silver worth at least $1 trillion, and a deposit so big it would take 200 years to mine.

Before the election the coalition said that we would remove any government impediments to the future expansion of Olympic Dam and work with BHP on ways that we could assist, particularly in terms of approval processes and political stability in decision making. We approached BHP shortly after the election to discuss such issues as one-stop environmental approval procedures and certainty about the carbon and mining taxes. We repealed the carbon tax and we repeal the mining tax.

In September the federal government helped cut through the green tape with a ruling that a trial of heap leaching technology could proceed without the extra cost or lost time of more environmental checks on top of the existing environmental impact statement that had already been done.

Yesterday in question time I asked the Minister for Industry about the benefits of the Australia-China Free Trade Agreement to the resource sector. Amongst the many benefits of the FTA is the elimination of tariffs on copper and uranium. BHP is expecting a big rise in demand for those commodities over the next few decades. Annual demand for copper is expected to rise from 27 million to 40 million tonnes by 2030. There will also be higher demand for uranium from China as it reduces its usage of fossil fuel and shifts to nuclear energy.

BHP Billiton's CEO, Andrew Mackenzie, told his AGM that BHP are looking at using that heap leaching technology to expand Olympic Dam in stages, ramping up copper production from 184,000 tonnes a year now to 450,000 tonnes a year by 2024.

If uranium production grew proportionately it would be at least 10,000 tonnes a year. These plans would turn Olympic Dam into the world's second-biggest copper mine and potentially the world's biggest uranium mine. This level of expansion would mean a significant boost to South Australia's economy—which everyone knows is flagging—and thousands of potential jobs. However, as BHP's chief financial officer, Peter Beaven, has said, this is not a slam dunk. As he said, if we are going to get this project up we are really going to need the support of the broader community, the support of the government and so on. The Prime Minister has already indicated that the coalition government will assist however it can to advance the Olympic Dam expansion. If this project goes ahead, it will be significant for our state for the next 100 years. I think that South Australians should be optimistic about this project and make it clear to BHP, to the state government and to the federal government that they fully support an expansion of the Olympic Dam mine. (Time expired)