BHP Group (ASX:BHP) has renamed its Oak Dam copper exploration project in South Australia as Ankata following a naming process led by the Kokatha people.
Ankata is the Kokatha word for “bearded dragon”. The project’s proposed underground decline has been named Ankata piti, meaning “bearded dragon hole”, while its accommodation village is now Ankata ngurra, or “bearded dragon home”.
The project is located on Kokatha Country, around 65km southeast of BHP’s Olympic Dam operations and 500km north of Adelaide.
BHP says the renaming follows the Indigenous Land Use Agreement signed with Kokatha Aboriginal Corporation (KAC) in mid-2025.
KAC Chair Nyani Thomas says the name recognises the Kokatha story associated with the area.
“The renaming of Oak Dam as Ankata is important, as it recognises the Kokatha story of the Bearded Dragon that runs through this Country,” Thomas says.
Ankata hosts a deep iron oxide copper-gold mineralised system, with mineralisation beginning around 800m below the surface.
BHP has conducted surface drilling and core processing at the project since 2018. The proposed next stage involves constructing twin declines to provide underground drilling access, allowing further resource definition and geotechnical work.
South Australia granted BHP a five-year retention lease and a miscellaneous purposes licence for a water infrastructure corridor in October 2025. A separate licence covering the site infrastructure corridor remains under assessment.
The company must also secure approval for a program for environment protection and rehabilitation before beginning the relevant work. BHP has not announced a mine development decision.
BHP Group operates the Olympic Dam, Prominent Hill, and Carrapateena copper mines in South Australia, which feed its centralised smelter and refinery at Olympic Dam.
Write to France Pinzon at Mining.com.au
Images: BHP Group
