(Reuters) – BHP Group is continuing to push ahead with the expansion of its copper smelter and refinery at Olympic Dam in South Australia, as global miners ramp up their efforts around the key metal for greener energy transition.

The world's largest miner on Friday said the government of South Australia has begun an application and assessment process for the expansion, citing a notification in the South Australian Government Gazette.

BHP is strengthening its efforts in copper expansion, given the commodity's extensive role in the global shift towards greener energy and a subdued outlook for its top revenue generator, iron ore, as leading customer China's economic growth loses pace and supply rises.

"We are already growing BHP's copper production in South Australia with projects and studies underway at all of our operating sites, and we're moving at pace to potentially double our current production by the middle of the next decade," said Anna Wiley, BHP asset president copper for South Australia.

BHP is eyeing to lift its annual output from the region to 500,000 metric tons of cathode by early 2030s, from 322,000 tons produced last financial year. It expects to raise the output to up to 650,000 by the mid-2030s.

BHP will make a final investment decision on the expansion in 2027, it added.

(Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)