Integrated Closure Planning for Olympic Dam’s TSFs

Olympic Dam is one of the world's significant deposits of copper, gold, silver, and uranium. Located on Kokatha Country, 560km from Adelaide in South Australia, the mine continues to operate with several decommissioned tailings storage facilities (TSFs) currently undergoing closure preparations. Since 2020, Okane has collaborated with BHP, providing our interdisciplinary expertise on a series of projects to support the final closure design and associated approvals of these TSFs.

In close collaboration with BHP, Okane conducted an identification phase study to determine the preferred investment alternative (PIA) to inform the closure of the TSFs. This included field evaluation, laboratory testing and analysis, and desktop studies of closure trial options. We also supported a bridging engineering study to ensure the PIA progressed to the selection/definition phase study (SDPS). The SDPS optimized and refined the PIA design for effective execution and monitoring of closure trials, for ultimately informing the final landform cover system design.

By strategically combining field trials, laboratory analysis, and numerical modelling, BHP have been able to effectively assess the optimal cover system trial designs for the TSFs. This approach has allowed BHP to leverage the expertise of all eight of Okane’s integrated mine closure solutions.