Olympic Dam Supplementary Environmental Impact Statemen

BHP Billiton today released the final Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the expansion of its Olympic Dam operation in South Australia.

As part of the stringent government approvals process, BHP Billiton submitted the SEIS for review by the Australian, South Australian and Northern Territory Governments in early December 2010. The Governments then performed a series of adequacy checks on the SEIS before granting BHP Billiton permission to publicly release the document.

Government permission to release the SEIS is a significant step towards establishing South Australia’s Olympic Dam as one of the world’s premier mining operations. The proposed expansion of Olympic Dam still remains subject to final government approvals as well as approval by the BHP Billiton Board.

BHP Billiton Uranium Customer Sector Group President, Dean Dalla Valle, said the project could inject billions of dollars into the South Australian economy for decades to come.

“Olympic Dam is the world’s largest uranium deposit and a leading copper and gold resource. The Olympic Dam expansion will deliver enormous benefits to the South Australian economy, including generating up to 6,000 new jobs during construction, a further 4,000 full time positions at the expanded open pit mine and an estimated 15,000 new indirect jobs. Furthermore, theexpansion has the potential to boost State revenue by billions of dollars over the life of the project.”

The SEIS addresses the environmental, social, cultural and economic issues raised in more than 4,000 public submissions on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which was released to the public in May 2009. The SEIS is available for viewing at various public locations. BHP Billiton continues to be fully committed to this important process following more than five years of engagement with government, industry and community.