Olympic Dam is set to benefit from BHP’s investment of more than A$600 million¹ over FY2018 on a range of important programs of work underway in South Australia.

Speaking today at the American Chamber of Commerce event in Adelaide, Asset President Olympic Dam, Jacqui McGill, said Olympic Dam had 49 projects in execution this financial year.

“This represents the most significant investment we’ve ever made in our South Australian operations. And these investments – in our underground infrastructure and above ground processing operations – will help us build the foundations for long term, safe, stable and sustainable growth at Olympic Dam,” she said.

“The investment will ensure the operation is more modern, reliable and can support processing of additional tonnes in coming financial years.”

Ms McGill highlighted Olympic Dam had more programs of work in execution this financial year than any other BHP operation in Australia.

“Forty of these projects are being supported by BHP’s new functional-regional model, which means Olympic Dam can draw on the incredible expertise within BHP’s Minerals Australia projects team,” she said.

The AU$600 million capital investment is apportioned across three key areas at Olympic Dam:

• Around 20 per cent of the investment supports the underground expansion into the high-grade Southern Mine Area including additional fleet, telecommunications, raise bores, power and other services;
• Nearly 40 per cent will underpin further underground development in the existing Northern Mine Area footprint; and
• As announced, more than 40 per cent is directed to a wide range of infrastructure and other programs onsite, including the major smelter campaign – which is a A$350million construction program spread across FY2017 and FY2018.

To support the additional work at Olympic Dam, Ms McGill said the Company was recruiting to make sure the best people were working with the team.

“In addition to leveraging the expertise of our BHP colleagues internally, we’re also boosting numbers in our Olympic Dam squad, so that we have a more diverse workforce that is representative of the communities in which we operate in.

“I’m proud that in the last 12 months, our recruitment of new female employees to join our team has increased by 20 per cent.

“And our recent efforts to renew our focus on effective contractor relationships has also been a success – through our Industry Capability Network Gateway online, we had a total of 226 submissions and 70 per cent of registrations new to Olympic Dam and more than 30 per cent were from South Australia,” Ms McGill said.

Through natural attrition, as well as the support of current and future growth projects, Olympic Dam expects to continue to have a rolling requirement for around 250 roles at any one time. Anyone interested in future opportunities are encouraged to register for job alerts on the BHP careers page.

For more information, please read Jacqui McGill's AMCHAM speech or see our News Release.

¹ This is included in the Company’s Group capital guidance and prioritisation and is inclusive of a large portion of the major smelter campaign of works, with investment of AU$350 million across FY2017 and FY2018, as announced in the BHP Operational Review for the year ended 30 June 2017.