Olympic Dam is already on the grid but as far as I know the mine and township is already fully utilizing the supply. The problem for BHP is that there is no more electricity available from the grid and the SA government does not appear to be interested in paying for either more infrastructure or more coal fired power plants.
There are a couple of geothermal hopefuls looking for hotrocks close to Olympic Dam but neither of them is as far down the track as GDY and their target rocks are nowhere near as hot (Petratherm and Green Rock). BHP invited tenders for the supply of power for their Olympic Dam expansion back in March (http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,23636,23436543-14334,00.html). This same source reports that the power needs of Olympic Dam will rise from 120MW at present to 690MW post expansion. It seems that they may need to fund their own power requirements.
Perhaps there is an opportunity for GDY to licence BHP to construct some of their own power plants in the Cooper Basin geothermal fields. The alternative may be for BHP to forgo the Olympic Dam expansion altogether.
RNE Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
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