BHP Billiton on track as Q1 growth boosted by iron ore, petroleum
Mining giant BHP Billiton said production growth remained steady in the first quarter, driven by increases in iron ore and petroleum, as it maintained its two-year guidance to grow output by an average 16% to June 2015.
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Group production increased by 9% in the three months to 30 September, the same level seen over the year to June 2014.
Chief executive Andrew Mackenzie said it was a "robust" operating performance across the company's diverse portfolio, "with records achieved for eight operations and four commodities".
Iron ore, BHP's biggest division which accounts for around one-third of group revenues, saw output grow by 17% year-on-year to 57.09 tonnes with Western Australian Iron Ore operations reaching a record.
The company said it remains on track to grow iron ore production by 11% over the financial year to 225m tonnes.
Another big revenue generator, petroleum, saw output rise 7% on last year to 67.4m barrels of oil equivalents. Guidance for production of 255m barrels this year, up 5% on last year, was also maintained.
Production of metallurgical coal, manganese ores and alloys also rose, but the group saw annual declines in the output of copper, energy coal, aluminium and nickel.
The company announced in August that it would spin-off $14bn of non-core assets to focus on its larger iron ore, copper, coal, petroleum and potash operations.
It confirmed last week that the remaining selection of aluminium, coal, manganese, nickel and silver assets would be separated and listing on the London stock exchange.