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Western Australia Iron Ore Dual Harbour Strategy
NEWS RELEASE
Release Time IMMEDIATE
Date: 24 August 2012
Number: 20/12
WESTERN AUSTRALIA IRON ORE DUAL HARBOUR STRATEGY
As foreshadowed in BHP Billiton’s profit announcement on 22 August, the Company has
been evaluating the most efficient means of expanding production from Western Australia
Iron Ore (WAIO) beyond its current 240 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) Inner Harbour
throughput allocation in Port Hedland.
Preliminary studies have shown the potential for WAIO to ship substantially more than 240
mtpa from the Inner Harbour. As a result, work on the Outer Harbour has been slowed while
WAIO’s focus has shifted to maximising its potential capacity from the Inner Harbour.
Today the Western Australia Minister for Transport and Port Hedland Port Authority
announced that WAIO has been granted the right, subject to the State approvals processes,
to develop two additional berths in the Inner Harbour. These berths do not come with
guaranteed shipping capacity beyond BHP Billiton’s current 240 mtpa throughput allocation.
WAIO believes there is substantially more opportunity to optimise its Inner Harbour
throughput, given there is significant underutilised Inner Harbour port capacity. Port users
may ship beyond their shipping allocation if unused capacity is available.
BHP Billiton President Iron Ore, Jimmy Wilson, said:
“Over the past 10 years, BHP Billiton has invested approximately US$19 billion in growing its
WAIO business. What has become apparent through this process is that a number of the
existing facilities have, or with minor modifications will have, the potential to deliver
substantially more capacity than was assumed originally.
Development of the Outer Harbour remains attractive. Its initial development would require
dredging a shipping channel and turning basin, as well as constructing a four kilometre jetty
with associated stockyards and car dumpers at Boodarie. Additional expansion in the Inner
Harbour would delay the requirement for many of these investments.
The right to develop these berths and prudent debottlenecking in the Inner Harbour provide
for a lower cost port capacity to match easily accessible growth options in our mines and rail.
The Outer Harbour continues to be an important part of our long-term strategy. Despite the
substantial establishment costs associated with this greenfield facility, our analysis
concluded that development of the first 50 mtpa phase of the Outer Harbour Project would
deliver a value-adding investment return as a standalone project. The Outer Harbour
therefore remains a critical part of our future growth plans, but is not our best option right
now”.
Background notes:
BHP Billiton owns 85 per cent of WAIO(1) and is the operator. In the 2012 financial year,
WAIO produced 174 mt of iron ore (100 per cent basis). Production is forecast to increase
by approximately five per cent in the 2013 financial year. Commissioning of the WAIO Port
Hedland Inner Harbour Expansion project remains on schedule for the second half of the
2012 calendar year and is expected to increase our Inner Harbour capacity to 220 mtpa (100
per cent basis).
Further information on BHP Billiton can be found at: www.bhpbilliton.com.
Sponsor: Absa Capital (the investment banking division of Absa Bank Limited, affiliated with
Barclays)
Media Relations Investor Relations
Australia Australia
Antonios Papaspiropoulos James Agar
Tel: +61 3 9609 3830 Mobile: +61 477 325 803 Tel: +61 3 9609 2222 Mobile: +61 467 807 064
email: Antonios.Papaspiropoulos@bhpbilliton.com email: James.Agar@bhpbilliton.com
Kelly Quirke Andrew Gunn
Tel: +61 3 9609 2896 Mobile: +61 429 966 312 Tel: +61 3 9609 3575 Mobile: +61 439 558 454
email: Kelly.Quirke@bhpbilliton.com email: Andrew.Gunn@bhpbilliton.com
Fiona Martin United Kingdom and South Africa
Tel: +61 3 9609 2211 Mobile: +61 427 777 908
email: Fiona.Martin2@bhpbilliton.com Tara Dines
Tel : +44 20 7802 7113 Mobile : +44 7825 342 232
United Kingdom Email : Tara.Dines@bhpbilliton.com
Ruban Yogarajah Americas
Tel: +44 20 7802 4033 Mobile: +44 7827 082 022
email: Ruban.Yogarajah@bhpbilliton.com Brendan Harris
Tel: +44 20 7802 4131 Mobile: +44 7990 527 726
Deirdra McCracken email: Brendan.Harris@bhpbilliton.com
Tel: +44 20 7802 7462 Mobile: +44 7827 253 764
Email: Deirdra.S.McCracken@bhpbilliton.com Matt Chism
Tel: +1 71 359 96158 Mobile: +1 281 782 2238
Americas email: Matt.E.Chism@bhpbilliton.com
Jaryl Strong
Tel: +1 713 499 5548 Mobile: +1 281 222 6627
email: Jaryl.Strong@bhpbilliton.com
BHP Billiton Limited ABN 49 004 028 077 BHP Billiton Plc Registration number 3196209
Registered in Australia Registered in England and Wales
Registered Office: 180 Lonsdale Street Registered Office: Neathouse Place
Melbourne Victoria 3000 Australia London SW1V 1BH United Kingdom
Tel +61 1300 55 4757 Fax +61 3 9609 3015 Tel +44 20 7802 4000 Fax +44 20 7802 4111
(1)
BHP Billiton's partners in its Pilbara Iron Ore operations are: Itochu Minerals & Energy of Australia Pty Ltd, Mitsui-Itochu Iron Pty Ltd and Mitsui Iron
Ore Corporation Pty Ltd.
Date: 24/08/2012 12:24:00 Produced by the JSE SENS Department. The SENS service is an information dissemination service administered by the JSE Limited ('JSE').
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