Paterson Exploration Project, page-46

Olympic Dam, I wonder why it is not on the chart? Perhaps because it is both open pit and underground and the chart is for underground.

I don't think BHP have been making much money on Olympic Dam over the past couple of years. I've just downloaded a few of BHPs most recent annual, half yearly and quarterly reports and I note that production is down due to a smelter maintenance project., Olympic Dam is has been one of the lower performing operations on a return on capital employed basis. I don't know anywhere as much as others here about mining and copper, but I do remember when BHP were looking to go mega-open pit on Olympic dam years ago. I can't remember how many years they said it was going to take to remove overburden under that scenario.

In the charts below WAIO refers to Western Australian iron ore.





Contrast that to Escondida. If anyone ever wants to know what is the definition of a tier one copper mine it is Escondida. That beast just churns out copper (oxide to the heap leach, sulphide to the concentrator) year in and out right through the price cycle. The most recent cash cost I could find for Escondida was US$1.29/lb in the BHP HY2022 report.