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BHP Billiton to turn screw on iron ore rivals

Published: 03:35 22 Oct 2014 EDT

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BHP Billiton's (LON:BLT) "relentless focus on productivity" saw production rise by 9% and new records set in eight operations and four commodities.

The mining titan added it remained on track to boost total production by 16% over the two years to the end of the 2015 financial year.

Iron ore production from Pilbara in Western Australia has been at the heart of BHP‘s expansion.

Output here rose by 15% to a quarterly record of 62mln tonnes (Mt) in the three months to end September as the ramp-up of the Jimblebar mine continued ahead of schedule.

Andrew Mackenzie, chief executive, said having now completed its major supply chain investment, emphasis will switch to cutting costs and easing bottlenecks.

As a consequence, total iron ore supply chain capacity will rise to 290 Mt a year by the end of the 2017 financial year and cut unit costs by at least 25% to less than US$20 per tonne, he said.

Cash cost are set to fall by US$2.3bn over the same period, while productivity gains will add a further US$1.2bn.

Elsewhere, copper production eased 1% to 389,000 tonnes despite a strong underlying performance at Escondida.

Metallurgical coal production rose by 25% to 13 Mt as Queensland Coal also had a record quarter, while petroleum output rose 7% to 67.4 MMboe (millions of barrels of oil equivalent) boosted by onshore US liquids.

Mackenzie added it had been a robust performance overall during the quarter.

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