BHP Billiton on Wednesday approved $1.2 billion in pre-commitment capital to start development work on its Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine, which analysts estimate could almost cost 30 times that much to develop fully.
The funds will be used to buy trucks, build worker housing and for additional items requiring lengthy lead times, it said BHP said it will not make a final decision to go ahead until mid-2012, after it weighs up the 150 environmental conditions compulsory on the project by the national and South Australia state governments this week.
Once fully developed, Olympic Dam would approximately be on par with the massive copper mines of South America, although it would take years before the mine came close to identical the output of BHP's giant Escondida lode in Chile.
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