BHP Billiton has submitted documents outlining plans to develop Australia’s first new uranium mine in more than 20 years, a BHP spokesperson told MINING DAILY.
“BHP Billiton’s Uranium Australia has confirmed it referred its Yeelirrie Project proposal to the Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority and the Federal Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts,” spokesperson Kelly Quirke said.
Yeelirrie is located around 400km north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
The new mine will be the first developed in the State after WA Premier Colin Barnett last year lifted its long held ban on uranium mining.
BHP said construction for the plant is due to begin in 2011, with mining planned to commence in 2014. The mine will employ about 700 people during construction, with around 300 workers needed during production.
The project would be the biggest in the uranium industry since federal Labor came to power in 2007, having overturned the party’s long-standing ban on new uranium mines.
Australia currently has three uranium mines in operation, with Olympic Dam and Beverley in South Australia and the Ranger Mine in the Northern Territory. A fourth operation, the Honeymoon mine in South Australia, is due to begin next year.
BHP’s Olympic Dam was the most recent uranium mine developed in Australia, with its construction starting in 1988.
According to BHP, the Yeelirrie mine is planned to produce an average of 5000 tonnes of uranium per year over a life of more than 30 years.
The planned production would translate to revenue of more than $17 billion over its lifetime at current uranium prices.
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