BHP Billiton eyes expansion Down Under

Melbourne: BHP Billiton Ltd. is to invest almost AA$10 billion (Dh37.7 billion) on expanding iron ore and coal mining operations in Australia, the world's biggest miner announced on Friday.

The Melbourne-based Anglo-Australian giant will spend A$6.6 billion on expanding its iron ore operations in Western Australia, A$2.5 billion on expanding three projects in Queensland and A$400 million on an energy coal project in New South Wales, it told the Australian Securities Exchange.

The company also approved spending A$2.5 billion on three coking coal projects in central Queensland that will add 4.9 million tonnes of annual production capacity.

BHP Billiton metallurgical coal president Hubie van Dalsen said the company had a deep pipeline of expansion projects to develop its large reserves of metallurgical coal.

Increasing demand

"Our strategy is to rapidly progress development of these projects to capture the increasing demand we see for hard coking coal," he said.

BHP Billiton said it would spend A$400 million to expand the Hunter Valley Energy Coal mine in New South Wales to increase coal production by four million metric tonnes) to about 24 million tonnes a year.

"The emergence of demand for coal in the key growth markets allows us to get product to market quickly, ahead of further coal preparation plant expansions," BHP Billiton energy coal president Jimmy Wilson said.