World-class assets
- Robert Beaulieu
Aboriginal Employment Coordinator – EKATI, Canada - Robert is EKATI’s senior Aboriginal Affairs officer and has been with the Company since May 1998. He is a tremendous ambassador for our Company and has helped us build many bridges with Aboriginal communities in the region.
BHP Billiton has around 100 operating assets across the globe producing a range of commodities. Our portfolio of assets and the spread of our businesses are a fundamental strength of our Group. Not only do our operations underpin our consistent performance, they generate the cash flow we use to pay our employees, build new projects and fund our consistent returns to shareholders.
Maintaining and maximising the value of these world-class assets is critical. We run our operations with efficiency and excellence in mind, and are always on the look-out for opportunities to reliably improve our practices and procedures. We set benchmarks for our operations and continuously search for opportunities to safely and sustainably drive more from them. Our portfolio of assets is carefully managed through divestment, development and acquisition.
Record annual production was achieved at North West Shelf (Australia), Hillside (South Africa), Mozal (Mozambique), Paranam (Suriname), Escondida (Chile), Antamina (Peru), Western Australian Iron ore and Gemco (both Australia), New Mexico Coal (US), Cerrejon Coal and Cerro Matoso (both Colombia).
Targeting excellence
We continued to improve our already low-cost aluminium portfolio during the year. In alumina, the 250,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) Worsley alumina refinery expansion (of which BHP Billiton’s share is 215,000 tpa) from 3.25 million tpa to 3.5 million tpa was completed and commissioned in financial year 2006. Worsley’s Berth 6 shiploader program was also completed, with over one million tonnes of alumina having been loaded at the new berth since March 2006. These investments will help Worsley maintain its position as one of the world’s lowest cost alumina refineries and positions BHP Billiton to benefit from strong global demand for alumina.
Driving more from our operations
Our Cerro Matoso operation in Colombia boosted nickel production by nearly six million pounds. This strong performance was the result of Operating Excellence initiatives, which led to an increase in the quality of feedstock to the smelter, better performance from equipment critical to production, and strong recovery in demand for nickel.
Increasing production
Western Australia iron ore production was a record 89.6 million wet tonnes (BHP Billiton share) over the 2006 financial year. This increase reflects strong customer demand for iron ore products along with production from additional capacity at Area C and the Products and Capacity Expansion (PACE) projects.