BHP Billiton, Eskom Agree on Supply for Mozal Smelter (Update1)

May 31 -- BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's biggest mining company, and Eskom Holdings Ltd. agreed today on an amended power supply contract for the Mozal aluminium smelter in Mozambique as losses by the utility threaten the region's future power supply.

"Discussions relating to the contracts for the supply of electricity to the Hillside and Bayside smelters in South Africa will continue over the coming months with the intention of concluding binding agreements" before the end of the 2010/11 financial year, the companies said in a joint e-mailed statement today.

The contracts with the state-owned power utility are partly based on the price of aluminum and currency rates. A new accord "may involve BHP Billiton assuming responsibility for the commodity pricing and currency-exchange risks related to the contracts, which would in turn reduce the volatility of Eskom's earnings and improve its balance sheet," the Melbourne-based BHP said in April.

The agreement "removes the impact of embedded derivatives on Eskom's balance sheet, as well as all onerous conditions," Eskom's Acting Chairman Mpho Makwana said in the statement. BHP smelters in South Africa and Mozambique use as much as 2,150 megawatts of power, equivalent to more than 5 percent of installed capacity operated by Eskom, which supplies almost all of South Africa's electricity.

The utility, struggling to fund a 460 billion rand ($64 billion) expansion program, posted a 9.75 billion-rand net loss in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009. South Africa ran out of power in January 2008 after decades of over capacity and a failed reorganization of power utility stalled new investment.

Eskom is also in talks with Anglo American Plc over a deal.