SMM, Oct. 10: BHP Billiton expects a plant in (Olympic Dam), its Olympic dam, to be reopened this month after repairs will be carried out, BHP Billiton's head of Australian operations said on Tuesday. The company has found a way to get a return on assets to focus on improving productivity.
"We have identified a very reliable path to asset growth," Henry said. " He added that the company was on track to seek board approval for a plan to "spend a small amount of capital and get a healthy return".
Henry said the Olympic dam, which contains uranium oxide, copper, gold and silver, was "a great orebody", but in a series of setbacks, BHP announced in August that copper production had been disrupted because of a boiler tube failure. Underground mining at the site is still under way.
At the time, the Olympic dam was the only business that did not bring an "acceptable return on capital", the company's chief executive said.
In addition, it is too early for BHP Billiton and Vale (Vale) 's joint venture Samak (Samarco) iron ore business to resume production. The dam broke down at the end of 2015, which Brazil described as the worst environmental disaster.
Henry said: "there is no need for us to restart it at the forefront of the storm." We need to do everything we need to do, including winning community support, getting permission, resolving technical details, proving that assets are "financially attractive" and restructuring debt. "
BHP Billiton is still working on Brazil's legal problems. It has signed an agreement with the Brazilian authorities to settle a lawsuit of 20 billion reais ($5.3 billion), with 155 billion reais due for two years to be settled.
The company is also under pressure from activist investor Elliot consultancy (Elliott Advisors), which has called on BHP Billiton to dismantle its Anglo-Australian dual structure.
In the face of opposition from shareholders, Unilever executives last week cancelled plans to move the company's headquarters from London to the Netherlands.
BHP's Henry said BHP had never ruled out the possibility of disintegrating its dual structure and would continue to consider it, but the company was not yet convinced of its cost-effectiveness.
"one thing we can get from Unilever's decision is to make sure we are consulting with all our shareholders," Henry said. "
