[miningmx.com] — Johannesburg – BHP BILLITON PLC BHP Billiton’s South African coal unit plans to divest some of its virgin coal prospecting rights to focus on existing operations where close to $1.5bn was recently invested, the company said on Tuesday.
The rights available for sale include Hartogshof, T-Project, Davel, Pegasus, Theunissen, Waterberg, Newcastle, Ermelo and Remhoogte, BHP Billiton South Africa chairperson Xolani Mkhwanazi said.
“This divestment process will allow BECSA (BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa Limited) to focus on our existing operations throughout South Africa,” Mkhwanazi said.
The company said the rights sale would help deliver value to shareholders through the continued development of existing operations.
The world’s biggest diversified miner said in 2008 it would spend $975m on its Douglas-Middelburg Optimisation (DMO) Project, and another $450m to be invested in its Klipspruit project.
The investments by BHP, one of the world’s top coal exporters, sought to take advantage of burgeoning exports to India and China.
One Johannesburg-based coal analyst said not too much should be read into the prospecting rights sale, which was open to exploration, mining and development companies in a public tender.
“They are not selling their key prospects, just those that might be considered as peripheral projects,” the analyst told Reuters.
“BHP Billiton have been paring down their South African coal portfolio over a number of years. I don’t think they see their South African coal interests as part of their core assets,” he said of the Australian company.
