In December 2016, something unforgettable happened, and was immediately forgotten.
BHP’s Olympic Dam mine site saw its supply of electrical power interrupted by a network fault. It’s the fourth largest copper deposit and largest known single deposit of uranium on the entire planet. It’s a big deal. So when the headlines began pouring out claiming the mine had been “blacked out” by South Australia’s power grid, only three months after a major and also unforgettable (but not forgotten) blackout in South Australia, the temptation could not be resisted.
“The challenge to reduce emissions and grow the economy cannot fall to renewables alone,” BHP Chief Andrew Mackenzie told the Associated Press. “This is a wake-up call ahead of the Coag meeting and power supply and security must be top of the agenda and urgently addressed.”