Olympic Dam shutdown, an outcome to all be proud of

The Smelter Campaign Maintenance 2021 (SCM21) was the largest and most complex shutdown campaign to be undertaken at BHP’s Olympic Dam mine site in its 32 years of operation, which our multidisciplined team rose to the occasion to deliver successfully.

The shutdown was a major deconstruct and reconstruct endeavour that aimed to improve the integrity of critical plant and infrastructure at the mine site, one of the world’s largest copper mines in Roxby Downs, located 560km north of Adelaide.

 “The team did a fantastic job executing the shutdown. This was a complex and challenging scope of work undertaken in a very tight timeframe. Critical to the success was the detailed planning that was undertaken before the works commenced and the excellent relationship with the BHP and Bechtel teams,” commented Senior Project Manager, Steve Holloway.

Monadelphous’ involvement in the shutdown kicked off in May 2020, when we were engaged to work with BHP and Bechtel to develop WorkPac scopes for the hot metal area of the shutdown.

In March 2021 we began mobilising to site, where planning and preparation works continued ahead of the main shutdown works. At the project peak, over 400 Monadelphous team members worked around the clock to execute the works which were successfully completed, with heat up of the flash furnace on19 December.

This was all undertaken against a backdrop of COVID-19 with crews being impacted by multiple events across the country. Despite all the challenges the team pulled together and achieved an outcome they should all be proud of,” finished Steve.