The Olympic Dam expansion was a fast-track project, completed in two years instead of the usual three for a project of this type. Olympic Dam is the largest copper mine and the largest uranium mine in Australia, with reserves estimated at 560 million tonnes of copper, uranium oxide, gold and silver mineralization, and an average copper grade of 2%.
The AUD 270 million pyrometallurgical portion of the project expanded the smelter from a production rate of 85,000 tpy to 200,000 tpy of equivalent cathode copper and included a new 200,000 tpy Outokumpu direct-to-blister flash furnace. The following equipment areas were within Aker Solutions’s detailed design scope:
The AUD 65 million refinery portion of the project included expansion of the copper refinery to a nominal 180,000 tpy electrorefined cathode copper, 20,000 tpy electrowon cathode copper, 75,000 ounces of gold per year and 1.0 million ounces per year of silver. This project included:
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Extension of the copper refinery building.
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Conversion of existing electrowinning facilities to electrorefining facilities.
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Installation of additional anode and cathode handling equipment.
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Expansion of the electrorefining tankhouse with installation of additional slimes collection tanks and relocation of the existing cyanidation equipment.
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Installation of additional decopperizing tanks and ancillary equipment.
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Construction of a separate electrowinning tankhouse.
A new goldroom facility was also constructed.
Project Highlights
The management of worker health and safety was challenging due to the radionuclides inherent in the orebody. Ore and concentrates require special metallurgical treatment, materials handling and gas cleaning techniques.
The Aker Solutions team won a number of awards from the client, including Engineer of the Month for the novel, cost-saving concept of an HDPE double‑lined dam, and Design Team of the Month for the Civil/Structural group’s excellent schedule performance.
Aker Solutionscompleted this project as part of a multi-vendor team under direction of the Owner.
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