What this place is
Olympic Dam is a four-metal mine: copper concentrate, uranium oxide, gold and silver all come out of one flowsheet in the South Australian desert.
What comes out
Copper
The reddish metal that carries electricity better than anything except silver, and which humans have been smelting…
Uranium
A heavy, faintly radioactive metal whose nucleus can be split, releasing about two million times more energy per…
Gold
The metal that does not tarnish, does not corrode and never runs out once mined — which is why almost all of it ever…
Silver
The best electrical conductor there is, and the metal that has been used as money for longer than almost anything…
A “by-product” is a metal recovered because it happens to be in the same rock, not because anyone went looking for it. Its supply therefore follows the primary metal’s economics, not its own.
Who owns it
| Company | Role | Interest |
|---|---|---|
| BHP Group | Miner | Owner-operator |
As publicly reported by the operators. Ownership of large mines changes; verify against current company filings before relying on it.