BHP says “social value” to be key aspect of its business planning

In this interview with The Gold Report, Lepouttre talks at length about some of his favorites inside and outside the gold space.

It has a “smart” pump, boom works faster, and burns less fuel.

The Chilean government has removed BHP Billiton's US$4 billion Spence copper expansion project from its 10-year development timeline, saying it expects the world's largest miner will miss its targeted deadline of first production by 2020.

The China-Brazil deal means that in just three years Vale will be producing more than BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto combined.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission concluded BHP did violate a U.S. anti-corruption law by paying for officials and their families to attend the Games.

The main objective of the legislation is to ensure that profits from those so-called “blood metals” — tungsten, tin, tantalum and gold — do not go to African warlords.

The increasing engagement of Latin America with Asia may potentially be at the expense of Australia’s traditional sense of right to be a major Asian player, expert says.

The firm created a new division in April to evaluate deals in those areas, and in the past six months has made mining infrastructure-related investments in the U.S. and Africa.

A few years ago London's precious metals traders would arrive at their desks to find the phones flashing. On the other end of the line were rival banks looking to buy and sell gold. Today the trading floors are a lot quieter.