BHP Billiton hopes to step up trials of a hi-tech method of extracting minerals from ore at its Olympic Dam mine in the hope of reigniting an expansion plan.
The mining giant put plans for a $US30 billion expansion of the massive site on ice in 2012, blaming falling commodity prices and higher costs.
It has since been searching for cheaper ways to develop new smelting and extraction technologies to cut costs and offset lower commodity prices.
One of the processes it has been trailing is heap leaching, a complex chemical process used to extract copper, uranium and precious metals from ores.
BHP on Monday said laboratory and pilot scale studies of heap leaching have shown promising results at the mine, 560km north of Adelaide.
It is now seeking approval from the federal and South Australian governments to build a plant to carry out heap leaching at the copper, uranium, gold and silver mine.
If it wins government approval, BHP plans to build a demonstration plant at the mine in late 2015 so it can test the process on a bigger scale the following year.
The miner already operates the world's largest underground mine at Olympic Dam, but wants to establish an open pit so it can tap into the massive ore deposit there.
Using heap leaching at the mine could help reduce BHP's processing costs.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has suggested in the past that speeding up the Olympic Dam expansion could help boost the South Australian economy once Holden ends car manufacturing there in 2017.
Olympic Dam features the world's largest uranium deposit, and fourth largest copper and gold deposits.
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