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BHP Billiton on track for record profit
AFP
SYDNEY
Petroleumworld.com 04 24 07
BHP Billiton Tuesday announced record output for the nine months to March, putting the world's largest miner on track to report an all-time high annual net profit of more than 13 billion US dollars.
BHP Billiton, which last year posted a record 10.45 billion US dollar profit, said the output of key commodities including iron ore, copper and nickel was underpinned by strong demand.
China's booming economy and insatiable thirst for resources is a driving force in the high levels of demand for the miner's products.
BHP Billiton said output of natural gas, alumina, aluminum and manganese also reached record levels during the first nine months of its fiscal year, which ends in June.
For the six months to December BHP Billiton posted a 6.17 billion US dollar net profit, up 41.3 percent from a year earlier.
For the nine-month period to March, iron output rose 9.0 percent year-on-year to 72.45 million tonnes.
The group said copper output set a new quarterly record due to the ramp up of the Escondida sulphide leach project and recently commissioned Spence project, both in Chile.
During the quarter, Spence produced 33,500 tons of the red metal, equivalent to 67 percent of the project's nameplate capacity.
Copper output rose 4.0 percent year-on-year to 908,000 tonnes and nickel output from mines in Columbia and Australia also rose 4.0 percent to 138,600 tonnes.
BHP Billiton said a number of projects were progressing according to revised budgets and timetables after labor and material shortages pushed construction costs up and extended development timetables.
The group is spending 17.5 billion US dollars on 29 new projects.
It said at the Ravensthorpe nickel project in the south of Western Australia, where costs have more than doubled to around 2.2 billion US dollars, first ore was delivered during the March quarter.
The project is now scheduled to start producing nickel concentrate in the first quarter of the 2008 calendar year.
AFP 24 0424 GMT 04 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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