BHP

Professor Clive Palmer, one of the richest men in Australia has recently declared that he is considering purchasing the nickel assets owned by BHP Billiton (BHP) to strengthen up an expansion program of Yabulu nickel refinery which is located in Queensland. Companies that are owned by Clive Palmer bought the refinery today in an undisclosed price which Professor Palmer claimed to be less than $2 billion.

BHP Billiton (BHP) has announced that it will cut about 6000 jobs globally due to the crises situation that prevails throughout the world. The miner made this announcement when it submitted the second quarter report for the financial year 2009. BHP has also revealed that it will suspend the Ravensthorpe nickel mine operation and will slash the output at Mount Keith mine in Western Australia, which will reduce its workforce by about 2100.

Many ASX listed companies had a boost in the stock market yesterday. Trading was thin ahead of a U.S. market holiday on Monday, and largely followed Wall Street's lead from last Friday. It was the miners that contributed most to the market's rise. This was particularly true for the gold stocks, which were helped by a more than 4% bounce in the price of the precious metal. Newcrest mining (NCM) that was the real standout performer, with shares shooting almost 9% higher.

BHP Billiton (BHP) has missed its production target for the fourth quarter which the company forecasted earlier and also said that its coal sales were being held back by infrastructure constraints in eastern Australia. The company said sales from its Queensland coal operation were being hit by limited rail and port capacity. BHP also said that the third party infrastructure constrains were hitting its Hunter Valley Coal export sales.

BHP Billiton (BHP), a leading producer of manganese ore has decided to cutback manganese production at the Samancor operations in South Africa and Australia where it owns more than 60% of share. The global market condition and reduction in the demand of steel is said to be the cause of this production cut.

What can be termed as one of the biggest achievements, Rio Tinto has bagged a record 86 percent hike in iron ore contract prices. The hike includes freight premium with China's biggest steel maker, Boasteel. Shipping iron ore from China is cheaper than from Brazil. This has led to higher iron ore contract price between Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton against Rio de Janeiro based Vale.