Profile: BHP Billiton Limited (BHP)

BHP Billiton Limited, incorporated in 1885, is a diversified natural resources company. The Company is engaged in extracting and processing minerals, oil and gas from its production operations located primarily in Australia, the Americas and southern Africa. It sells its product worldwide with its marketing activities centralized in Singapore, The Hague and Antwerp. The Company operates in nine customer sector groups (CSGs): petroleum, aluminum, base metals, diamonds and specialty products, stainless steel materials, iron ore; manganese, metallurgical coal, and energy coal.

Petroleum Customer Sector Group

The Company’s Petroleum CSG is a global oil and gas business with producing assets in six countries and exploration opportunities in a further six countries. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2009 (fiscal 2009), the Company realized annual production volumes of 137.2 million barrels of oil equivalent. Its sells its crude oil production to refiners worldwide at market prices. Its production assets include Bass Strait, North West Shelf, Gulf of Mexico, Zamzama, Liverpool Bay and Bruce/Keith, Algeria, Stybarrow, Other Australia and Trinidad and Tobago. Together with its 50-50 joint venture partner, Esso Australia, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, the Company has been producing oil and gas from Bass Strait, off the south-eastern coast of the Australian mainland. It is a joint venture participant in the North West Shelf Project in Western Australia. The Company operates three fields in the Gulf of Mexico (Neptune, Shenzi/Genghis Khan and consolidated operations in the West Cameron area), and hold non-operating minority interests in a further three fields (Atlantis, Mad Dog and Genesis). It also owns 25% and 22%, respectively, of the companies that own and operate the Caesar oil pipeline and the Cleopatra gas pipeline, which transport oil and gas from the Green Canyon area, where a number of fields are located, to connecting pipelines that transport product to the mainland.

The Company holds a 38.5% working interest in and operates the Zamzama gas project in Sindh province of Pakistan. The Liverpool Bay integrated development consists of six offshore gas and oil fields in the Irish Sea, the Point of Ayr onshore processing plant in North Wales, and associated infrastructure. The Company is the operator of the Stybarrow project (50% the Company’s share), a nine well subsea development in approximately 825 meters of water approximately 65 kilometers offshore north Western Australia. It is the operator of the Griffin project (45% the Company’s share) where oil and gas are produced via the Griffin Venture, a floating production storage and offtake facility. The Greater Angostura project is integrated oil and gas development located offshore east Trinidad.

Aluminum Customer Sector Group

The Company’s Aluminum business is a portfolio of assets at three stages of the aluminum value chain: it mines bauxite, refines bauxite into alumina, and smelts alumina into aluminum metal. It produced approximately 15 million tones of bauxite and 4.4 million tones of alumina. During fiscal 2009, approximately 52% of its alumina production was used in its aluminum smelters and it sold the balance to other smelters. The Boddington bauxite mine in Western Australia supplies bauxite ore via 51 kilometer long conveyor to the Worsley alumina refinery. The Company owns 86% of the mine and the refinery. During fiscal 2009, it owned a 45% interest in Suriname bauxite and alumina joint venture that comprised bauxite mines in the Kaaimangrasie, Klaverblad, Caramacca and Coermotibo areas of Suriname and the nearby Paranam alumina refinery. It also owns 14.8% of Mineracao Rio do Norte (MRN), which owns and operates a bauxite mine in Brazil.

The Company owns 36% of the Alumar refinery and 40% of the smelter. Alcoa operates both facilities. The Company’s share of Alumar’s saleable production was 537,000 tons of alumina and 177,000 tons of aluminum in fiscal 2009. Its Hillside and Bayside smelters are located at Richards Bay, South Africa. It owns 47.1% of and operates the Mozal aluminium smelter in Mozambique, which has a total capacity of approximately 563,000 tons per annum. The Company’s share of Mozal’s production was 255,000 tons in fiscal 2009.

Base Metals Customer Sector Group

The Company’s Base Metals CSG is a producer of copper, silver, lead and uranium, and also a producer of zinc. Its portfolio of mining operations includes the Escondida mine in Chile, which is the producer of copper, and Olympic Dam in South Australia, which is a producer of copper and uranium. Its total copper production was 1.2 million tons in fiscal 2009. The Company markets five primary products: copper concentrates, copper cathodes, uranium oxide, lead concentrates and zinc concentrates. It has seven production assets: Escondida, Olympic Dam, Antamina, Spence, Cerro Colorado, Cannington and Pinto Valley.

Diamonds and Specialty Products Customer Sector Group

The Company’s Diamonds and Specialty Products CSG operates its diamonds and titanium minerals businesses, and the exploration and development of a potash business. Its diamonds business is the EKATI diamond mine in the Northwest Territories of Canada, of which the Company owns 80%. The Company’s principal interest in titanium minerals consists of its 50% interest in Richards Bay Minerals (RBM).

Stainless Steel Materials Customer Sector Group

The Company’s Stainless Steel Materials business is primarily a supplier of nickel to the stainless steel industry. In addition, it supplies nickel and cobalt to other markets, including the specialty alloy, foundry, chemicals, and refractory material industries. Its nickel business comprises three sets of assets: Nickel West, Yabulu and Cerro Matoso.

Iron Ore Customer Sector Group

The Company’s iron ore CSG consists of its Western Australia Iron Ore business (WAIO) and a 50% interest in the Samarco joint venture in Brazil. WAIO’s operations involve an integrated system of seven mines, more than 1,000 kilometers of rail and port facilities, located in the Pilbara region of northern Western Australia. The Company is a 50-50 joint venture partner with Vale at the Samarco operations in Brazil.

Manganese Customer Sector Group

The Company’s Manganese operations produce a combination of ores, alloys and metal from sites in South Africa and Australia. It owns all of its manganese mining assets and alloy plants through 60-40 joint ventures with Anglo-American. The joint venture assets are Samancor Manganese, which owns Hotazel Manganese Mines (HMM) and Metalloys, both situated in South Africa and the Groote Eylandt Mining Company (GEMCO) and Tasmanian Electro Metallurgical Company (TEMCO) located in Australia. The joint venture also owns 51% of the Manganese Metal Company, which operates a manganese metal plant in South Africa.

Metallurgical Coal Customer Sector Group

The Company’s Metallurgical Coal CSG is a supplier of seaborne metallurgical coal. It has production assets in two resource basins, the Bowen Basin in Central Queensland, Australia and the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The Bowen Basin mines are owned through a series of joint ventures. The Company shares 50-50 ownership with Mitsubishi Development Pty Ltd of BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA), which operates the Goonyella Riverside, Peak Downs, Saraji, Norwich Park, Blackwater and Gregory Crinum mines, together with the Hay Point terminal. It owns 80% of the South Walker Creek and Poitrel mines, with Mitsui and Co. owning the other 20%. The Company owns and operates three underground coal mines in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, which primarily supply metallurgical coal to the nearby BlueScope Port Kembla steelworks, and domestic and export markets under contracts with annually negotiated prices.

Energy Coal Customer Sector Group

The Company’s Energy Coal CSG is a producer and marketer of export energy coal (also known as thermal or steaming coal), and is also a domestic supplier to the electricity generation industry in Australia, South Africa and the United States. The Company operates three sets of assets: a group of mines and associated infrastructure collectively known as BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa (BECSA), its New Mexico Coal operations in the United States, and its Hunter Valley Energy Coal operations in New South Wales, Australia. It also owns a 0.33% share of the Cerrejon Coal Company, which operates a coal mine in Colombia.

BECSA operates three coal mines in the Witbank region of Mpumalanga province of South Africa, which produced a total of approximately 31.7 million tones. It owns and operates the Navajo mine, located on Navajo land in New Mexico, and the nearby San Juan mine. The Company’s Hunter Valley operating asset is the Mt Arthur open-cut coal mine produced approximately 11.8 million tons in fiscal 2009.