Why bhp billiton

Mining firm regrets Australia sacred site failure. Image source, BHP. Pressure for change. Related Topics. Companies BHP Mining. Published 24 February. Published 4 February. The company began petroleum exploration in the s with discoveries in Bass Strait, an activity which became an increasing focus.

The inefficiencies of what was, by global standards, a small steel operation in Newcastle finally caught up with the company and the Newcastle operations were closed in Billiton was a mining company whose origins dates back to when the company acquired the mineral rights to the tin-rich islands of Banka Bangka and Billiton Belitung in the Indonesian archipelago, off the eastern coast of Sumatra.

Billiton's initial business forays included tin and lead smelting in The Netherlands, followed in the s by bauxite mining in Indonesia and Suriname.

The tin and lead smelter in Arnhem, Netherlands was shut down in the s. In Gencor acquired the mining division of Billiton excluding the downstream metal division. Billiton was divested from Gencor in Throughout the s and beyond, Billiton Plc experienced considerable growth.

Its portfolio included aluminium smelters in South Africa and Mozambique, nickel operations in Australia and Colombia, base metals mines in South America, Canada and South Africa, coal mines in Australia, Colombia and South Africa, as well as interests in operations in Brazil, Suriname, Australia aluminium and South Africa titanium minerals and steel and ferroalloys.

The Mozal aluminium smelter uses Aluminium Pechiney AP35 technology to produce standard aluminium ingots. Mozal also developed and operates a dedicated berth and other port terminal facilities at Matola, the port of Maputo. Mozal 1 was launched in It was officially opened on 29 September The Mozal 2 expansion project was approved in June and expanded the output of the smelter from to tpa of primary ingots.

The first aluminium was cast at the expansion project on 7 April The smelter now has a total capacity of approximately tonnes per annum. Mozal sources power from Eskom via Motraco, a transmission joint venture between Eskom and the national electricity utilities of Mozambique and Swaziland.

Tariffs are fixed through to and will be linked to the LME aluminium price thereafter. The joint venture has a year right to use the land, renewable for another 50 years under a government concession. BHP Billiton occupies significant positions in major commodity businesses, including aluminium, energy coal and metallurgical coal, copper, manganese, iron ore, uranium, nickel, silver and titanium minerals, and has substantial interests in oil, gas, liquefied natural gas and diamonds.

Mozal is Mozambique's largest company. Despite the decline in the value of aluminium exports, the ingots produced at the MOZAL still account for well over half of Mozambique's export earnings. As a percentage of all commodity exports, aluminium fell from 61,4 to 54,7 percent. The central tenet of the BHP Billiton business model is that its diversified portfolio of high quality assets provides stable cash flows and an enhanced capacity to drive growth.

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