Singapore 29/09/2016 - BHP Billiton has suspended production at its Olympic Dam copper-gold mine following a massive power blackout in South Australia, a company spokesman confirmed with FastMarkets.
Power from back-up generators has been diverted to maintain critical operations at the remote site, he said. It is uncertain when production could restart, he added.
“Following the loss of power in South Australia, Olympic Dam was able to safely shut down. Back-up generators are currently providing power to critical infrastructure and will allow a restart of operations when power is restored,” the spokesman said.
He was unable to confirm the exact time of stoppage at the mine but noted that it was likely to have been at around the same time when the power outage happened.
After severe storms knocked out power to the entire South Australia state at around 3:30pm local time on Wednesday, power has since been restored to 90 percent of the state by Thursday morning local time, according to various media reports.
But local authorities warned that further disruption was still possible given forecast of gale force winds and heavy rains.
The mine produced 203,000 tonnes of copper in fiscal 2016. The mine also produces uranium.