A promotional sign adorns a stage at a BHP Billiton function in central Sydney August 20, 2013. Australian shares edged 0.1 percent higher on Wednesday morning, as a mixed bag of earnings kept buyers in check with top miner BHP Billiton Ltd sliding after
A promotional sign adorns a stage at a BHP Billiton function in central Sydney August 20, 2013. Australian shares edged 0.1 percent higher on Wednesday morning, as a mixed bag of earnings kept buyers in check with top miner BHP Billiton Ltd sliding after its profits undershot forecasts, though a rebound in the banking sector helped support the market. BHP dropped 2.5 percent after it missed analysts' forecast in its full-year profit late on Tuesday and said it delayed production the $14 billion Canadian potash project. Picture taken August 20, 2013. Reuters/David Gray

BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) has sought the permission from the federal government to increase the height of the walls of its tailings dam at its Olympic Dam mine in South Australia by 10 metres from 30 to 40 metres.

The higher wall is because of the giant miner's plan to hike the volume of radioactive fluids in the dam to 64.8 million cubic metres from 48.4 million cubic metres. BHP expects the construction work to finish by September 2023, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

It is part of BHP's new development plans for its giant uranium, copper and gold mine, which the miner said won't increase seepage rates.

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Green groups have previously expressed concerned about the higher volume of radioactive fluids because of the admission in 1994 by the previous owner of Olympic Dam, Western Mining Corporation, that its storages had leaked 5 billion cubic metres of tailing fluids into an underground aquifer.

The request for bigger capacity is due to BHP's estimate that at its current rate of production, the storage facility would reach its maximum capacity by December 2017. If Canberra would allow BHP to increase the capacity, it would extend the facility's life by five more years and avoid spending so much to build a new storage dam, reports Mining Weekly?

To contact the writer, email: v.hernandez@ibtimes.com.au