BHP Billiton said today it plans to have the first of five planned stages of expansion at its Olympic Dam mine in production by 2013.

Olympic Dam expansion project director Ted Bassett said in a presentation filed on the Australian Securities Exchange today that stage one would be in production by 2013.

The first phase of expansion is to optimise the existing underground operation and increase its production capacity to 200,000 tonnes of copper, 4500 tonnes of uranium and 120,000 ounces of gold.

Mr Bassett said the development of the open pit is to take five years with the ore processing expansion to be developed in three stages.

Olympic Dam is located about 560km north of Adelaide in South Australia and houses the world’s largest known uranium resource, the fourth largest copper deposit and the fifth largest gold deposit.

The mine has a capacity to produce 180,000 tonnes of copper and 4000 tonnes of uranium per year, with the staged expansion looking to increase copper and uranium output to 730,000 and 19,000 tonnes, respectively.

Mr Bassett said an environmental impact statement for Olympic Dam had been completed for internal review, with approval expected to take between 12 to 18 months.

The company said earlier this month that the Olympic Dam orebody was “relatively complex” and that uncertainty about the “size, cost, timing and eventual configuration of the expansion project” remains.

BHP Billiton did not provide an updated capital cost estimate for the project in the presentation.

The last capital cost estimate for the expansion was $US6 billion ($8.92 billion), but some analysts suggest that figure could have climbed as high as $US20 billion ($29.73 billion).

Olympic Dam has been touted by BHP Billiton as one of the company's “outstanding growth prospects” that underpin its takeover proposal for rival Rio Tinto. – Associated Press