Olympic Dam, South Australia
Olympic Dam (30°27′ S 136°53′ E) http://kvaleberg.com/extensions/mapsources/index.php?params=30_27_S_136_53_E_region:AU-SA_type:city(1000)), population 1000) is a Australian mining centre in South Australia - located some 550km north of the South Australian capital, Adelaide. Known colloqially to the local residents as "OD", it is the site of an extremely large (world class) deposit of copper,uranium, gold and silver, which supports an underground mine as well as an integrated metallurgical processing plant.
The deposit was discovered by WMC Resources Ltd, (previously Western Mining Corporation) in 1975 and started production in 1987. The mine is currently mined by underground mining method called sub level open stoping, using modern and highly productive mining equipment. The March 2005 mine production rate is an annualised 9.1 million tonnes. By any yardstick, it is a large mine. 2005 metal production is thought to be in excess of 220,000 tonnes copper, 4500 tonnes U3O8 plus gold and silver. The copper and uranium oxide are exported through Port Adelaide.
Further development is planned to take the mine production rate to some 40 million tonnes per year and 450,000 tonnes copper metal and 14,000 tonnes per year of uranium oxide. The decision to expand the production rate has not yet been made.