By Robb M. Stewart
MELBOURNE--BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) has scrapped plans to buy a
basket of exploration licenses in the region of its Olympic Dam
copper and uranium mine in South Australia after it last month
shelved a US$30 billion plan to greatly expand the operation.
Exploration firm Tasman Resources Ltd. (TAS.AU) said Monday that
it had received a notice from BHP terminating conditional contracts
that would have seen BHP buy five exploration licenses and one
license application for the Stuart Shelf region, which hosts the
Olympic Dam deposit.
Tasman in mid-June had said BHP had agreed to buy the licenses
in a 3 million Australian dollar (US$3.1 million) deal subject to
several conditions. It at the time said the land contains several
targets that are thought to be deep and relatively high risk and
therefore more suited to companies with larger exploration
budgets.
BHP last month said it would investigate a less
capital-intensive design for an open-pit mine expansion to its
existing underground operation at Olympic Dam.
"After further reviewing our completed tenement acquisitions in
the Stuart Shelf combined with the recent grant of some additional
exploration license applications, the company is satisfied with its
existing exploration options in the region and chose not to proceed
with the purchase of Tasman's tenements," a BHP spokesman in
Melbourne said. "This decision is independent of Olympic Dam's
future development path."
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
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