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BHPBill to sell Integris Metals
BHPBill, a 50% shareholder in Integris Metals, announced yesterday that it would sell its interest in Integris, valued at USD660m, to Ryerson Tull.
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BHPBill to sell interests in Integris Metals
Alcoa Inc and BHP Billiton have announced that they have agreed to sell 100% of their respective equity interests in Integris Metals to Ryerson Tull for USD410m in cash plus assumption of Integris` debt, which was approximately USD250m as of 1 October, 2004. Alcoa and BHP Billiton each own 50% of Integris Metals. The transaction is expected to be completed by early 2005.
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BHPBill approves Rapid Growth Project 2
BHP Billiton announced the approval of Rapid Growth Project 2 (RGP2), a USD575m (BHP Billiton share will be USD489m, while USD86m will be provided by BHP Billiton Joint Venture Partners ITOCHU Minerals & Energy of Australia and Mitsui Iron Ore Corporation) project which will expand the capacity of its Western Australia iron ore operations from 110 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) to 118 Mtpa during the second half of calendar year 2006. RGP2 will include the development of a new brockman resource, Orebody 18, with an initial capacity of 8Mtpa, together with plant modifications at the existing Orebody 25 mine, and additional rail and port capacity.
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BHPBill approves Spence Copper Project
BHP Billiton announced the approval of the USD990m Spence Copper Project in northern Chile. The project will have a designed capacity to produce 200 000 tonnes of copper cathode per annum and will have a mine life of 19 years. First cathode production is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2006. Project development will consist of the construction of a new open-cut mine with associated infrastructure, a 50k tonne per day crushing circuit, two separate leach pads, two parallel solvent extraction (SX) plants and an electrowinning (EW) circuit to produce copper cathode.
The Spence orebody consists of both copper sulphide and oxide ores that will be mined from one open-cut mine but processed separately in order to achieve higher recovery rates. The chemical leaching of oxide ores and bacterial leaching of sulphide ores will be conducted on separate leach pads, with the resulting solutions sent to separate oxide and sulphide SX plants. The resulting solutions from the SX plants will then be treated in a single EW plant to produce copper cathode.
Proven and Probable ore reserves for the Spence orebody are estimated to be 310 million tonnes of copper ore with an average total copper grade of 1.14% at a total copper cut-off grade of 0.30%. These ore reserves are divided between 79 million tonnes of heap leach oxide ore at a grade of 1.18% total copper and 0.88% acid soluble copper, and 231 million tonnes of heap leach sulphide ore at a grade of 1.13% total copper, both at a total copper cut-off of 0.3%.
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BHPBill report for the quarter to September 04
Of the 14 projects that were under construction during the quarter, 10 are within original board approved expenditure limits and are tracking on or ahead of schedule. The exceptions are the Mad Dog Development, the ROD Integrated Development, Minerva and Dendrobium.
Minerals Exploration
The minerals exploration group of BHP Billiton continued to pursue global exploration opportunities for key commodities of interest to the group utilising both the Junior Alliance Program and in-house capabilities. The mini-bulk sample results on the BHP Billiton Qilalugaq property near Repulse Bay, Nunavut, Canada have been received. Diamonds were recovered from four separate samples, although none of the samples contained values that would be expected to be economic.
Exploration Expenditure
During the quarter, BHP Billiton spent USD26 million on minerals exploration, all of which was expensed, and USD61 million on petroleum exploration, of which USD30 million was expensed.
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BHPBill to expand copper productions
BHPBill is to expand copper production by 40% over the next three years anticipating a growing demand for the metal in China. Copper was the major contributor to the group`s 304% earnings increase for the 2004 financial year.
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BHPBill capital management programme details
On 18 August 04, BHPBill announced its intention to return up to USD2 billion of capital to shareholders, in addition to its ongoing progressive dividend policy. The programme will commence with an invitation to eligible shareholders in BHPBill Ltd to participate in an off-market buy-back of between AUD1.0 and AUD1.5 billion. Following completion of the off-market buy-back, BHPBill will consider alternatives for returning the balance of the USD2 billion to shareholders within the next 12 months through further share buy-backs in either BHP Billiton Plc or BHP Billiton Ltd and/or enhanced dividends. The form that the balance of the return of capital will take will depend on an assessment of market conditions at the time.
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