Oxiana HV Transmission Line and Substation Project

To provide the infrastructure to connect the new mine site to the electricity grid. The project is spread over 185km from the Olympic Dam Mine site to the new Prominent Hill Mine site.

The customer

In 2008 Oxiana and Zinifex merged to become Oz Minerals. OZ Minerals is a copper-focused, global, modern mining company based in South Australia. They own and operate the copper-gold mine at Prominent Hill, are developing one of Australia's largest copper-gold resources at Carrapateena, and have assets in Brazil.

The opportunity

The Prominent Hill Mine is a major copper, silver, and gold mine in north west South Australia, 130km south-east of Coober Pedy, which has been developed by Oxiana Limited, later to become OZ Minerals. The deposit is an iron oxide copper gold style mineralisation.

Oxiana Limited decided to develop the mine in August 2006, and required a number of new assets to be designed and constructed to connect the mine site to the electricity grid.

The solution

The project was spread over 185km from the Olympic Dam Mine site to the new Prominent Hill Mine site.

The scope of work included:

• 185km of 132kV Tower Line
• Connection into the Olympic Dam West Substation
• Installation of a new 275/132kV 140MVA transformer into Olympic Dam West Substation
• Development of a new 132/11/33kV 40MVA substation at the Prominent Hill Mine site
• Approx 170km of 33kV line to supply the mine site borefield

The project also includes the installation of two independent 32-man camp sites, established for personnel working on the transmission line construction.