News that BHP is boosting copper production in South Australia (SA) is a big story, but does it also mean one of Australia’s smaller states can be a world number one when it comes to copper?
Certainly that’s how the South Australia Chamber of Mines & Energy—SACOME—saw it, saying it welcomes BHP’s “staged approach to positioning South Australia as a global copper leader”. And the SA Government agrees.
As a South Australian boy I love the fact that my home state was known as the “Copper Kingdom” in the 1840’s, but is still moving with the times. And the BHP move could take it into the next century just as easily.
The ‘world’s biggest miner’ said it wants to upgrade the current Olympic Dam copper smelter to a two-stage smelter, as well as expand its refining capacity, moves that could double SA’’s copper production by the mid-2030s. BHP says it’s yearly output of 322,000 tons may hit 500,000 metric tons of cathode by early 2030s and even rise to 650,000 tons by the mid-2030s.
Full marks to the South Australian Government of course for positioning itself to take advantage of the world’s new appetite for copper. Not only did it put copper on its list of critical minerals list last year—the country’s first—but a “State Prosperity Project” launched last month aims to capitalise on the intersection of renewable energy, critical minerals and green manufacturing.
In fact they’ve done a lot to keep the state in the copper spotlight. They launched a “Copper Strategy” in 2017 and set up a ‘Copper Taskforce’ last year to work alongside copper producers and explorers to develop a long-term strategy to grow the state’s position as a global copper heavyweight.
South Australia—I’m pleased to say—has nearly 70% of Australia’s copper resources, but sadly still produces just under 30% of mined copper production. But I suspect given the innovation being shown by the SA state & its miners a shiny new copper kingdom is not far off.
Cheers, John Fennell.