Value of nuclear energy echoes with Olympic Dam

Australia's newest uranium mine, Olympic Dam contains 450 million tonnes of economic ore. It has the capacity to annually produce 45,000 tonnes of uranium oxide, 27,000 ounces of gold and 555,000 ounces of silver. The orebody composition and the deposit-wide mineral zonation pattern represents the end product of a complex evolution of a large breccia pipe system. A brief account is given of the mining and metallurgical operations, along with a list of the long term contracts which cover about 50% of Olympic Dam's initial uranium production. 1 tab., ills