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BHPBill is racing to sell coal equity
BHPBill was in talks to sell some of its equity in Richards Bay Coal Terminal because it was not using its full export allocation, Business Report quoted potential buyers as saying. BHPBill is the biggest shareholder in the terminal with 37.43%, as well as the biggest exporter, and does not want to face future penalties if it does not utilise all of its capacity.
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BHPBill -- quarterly production report
The group reported record half year and quarterly production of aluminium, alumina, copper cathode, iron ore, and manganese ore from continuing operations in response to strong customer demand. A half year production record was also achieved for molybdenum. Half year production records was achieved at Zamzama (Pakistan), Worsley (Australia), Paranam (Suriname), Hillside and Bayside (South Africa), Mozal (Mozambique), Western Australia Iron Ore and GEMCO (Australia), Samancor (South Africa) and Hunter Valley Coal (Australia). Quarterly production records was also achieved at Zamzama, Worsley, Alumar (Brazil), Bayside, Mt Newman, Saraji and GEMCO (Australia). Record quarterly production of natural gas was reported from North West Shelf (Australia) and copper from Escondida (Chile) in response to strong demand. BHP announced first production from the recently commissioned Spence (Chile) and Poitrel (Australia) operations.
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BHPBill -- quarterly report on exploration
BHPBill issued a report on the company's exploration and development activities for the quarter ended 31 December 2006. While the majority of BHPBill's projects remained broadly on schedule, tight labour markets and shortages of equipment and supplies continued to be evident and would continue to impact project costs and schedules. The Spence (Chile) copper project was commissioned during the quarter and achieved first production in early December three weeks ahead of schedule. The budget was subject to finalisation but was expected to be within the approved budget. In addition, the board approved the increased capital costs for the Ravensthorpe (Australia) nickel project to a total budget of USD2.2 billion. Lower than expected labour productivity and late delivery of some materials and equipment at Ravensthorpe meant that the target date for first metal from Ravensthorpe is now the first quarter of calendar year 2008. BHPBill continued to pursue global exploration opportunities for key commodities. Grassroots exploration continued on diamond targets in Angola, Canada and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), on copper targets in Mexico, Chile, Mongolia and the DRC; and on nickel targets in Australia, Russia and Africa. Exploration for iron ore, coal, potash and bauxite was undertaken in a number of regions including Australia, Brazil, Canada and West Africa. For the half year ended 31 December 2006, BHPBill spent USD153 million on minerals exploration, of which USD111 million was expensed. Capitalised exploration included USD41 million for the Olympic Dam Expansion. Petroleum exploration expenditure for the half year ended 31 December 2006 was USD159 million. The amount expensed was USD154 million including USD43 million of exploration expenditure previously capitalised.
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