BHP shoots the lights out

Frik Els | October 21, 2014 | 10:38 pm Base Metals Energy Precious Metals Top Companies Australia Coal Copper Iron Ore Nickel Silver 
BHP shoots the lights out
BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam

BHP Billiton’s third quarter production figures, released today shows the world’s number one miner rapid rate of expansion continues unabated.

The Anglo-Australian giant increased overall output by 9% during the quarter to end-September with records achieved for eight operations and four commodities.

BHP, which is in the process of spinning off non-core assets into a $15 billion standalone company, is also sticking to its production guidance and is on track to deliver group-wide production growth of 16% over the two years to the end of the 2015 financial year.

With prices of three of BHP’s core commodities – iron ore, met coal and oil – tanking this year, volume growth is clearly the way to go:

  • Metallurgical coal production increased by 25% to 13 Mt as Queensland Coal achieved record quarterly production and sales volumes.
  • Western Australia Iron Ore production increased by 15% to a quarterly record of 62 Mt (100% basis) as the ramp-up of Jimblebar continued ahead of schedule and we improved the availability, utilisation and rate of our integrated supply chain.
  • Petroleum production increased by 7% to 67.4 MMboe as Onshore US liquids volumes rose by 49% to a record 11.5 MMboe.

And perhaps the relatively robust copper price (back above $3 a pound today) can be explained by supply disruptions like this one that seems to plague copper mining more than other commodities:

  • Total copper production decreased by 1% to 389 kt as lower ore grades, a power outage throughout Northern Chile and industrial action offset strong underlying operating performance at Escondida.

SEE ALSO: CHART: BHP before and after spin-off

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