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BHP relocations ahead with growth of South Australia's Olympic Dam copper refinery

BHP Group is continuing to push ahead with the expansion of its copper smelter and refinery at Olympic Dam in South Australia, as international miners increase their efforts around the key metal for greener energy transition.

The world's biggest miner on Friday said the federal government of South Australia has actually started an application and evaluation procedure for the expansion, pointing out a notice in the South Australian Government Gazette.

BHP is enhancing its efforts in copper expansion, offered the product's substantial role in the international shift towards greener energy and a subdued outlook for its top earnings generator, iron ore, as leading customer China's economic development loses speed and supply rises.

We are currently growing BHP's copper production in South Australia with jobs and studies underway at all of our operating sites, and we're moving at speed to potentially double our current production by the middle of the next decade, stated Anna Wiley, BHP asset president copper for South Australia.

BHP is considering to lift its annual output from the region to 500,000 metric lots of cathode by early 2030s, from 322,000 tons produced last financial year. It expects to raise the output to as much as 650,000 by the mid-2030s.

BHP will make a final investment decision on the expansion in 2027, it added.

(source: Reuters)