kloppers addressing melb mining club, page-3

while you're waiting jgollner...

I particularly liked the last sentence

cheers
Lekki


BHP Billiton confident on Rio Tinto bid

BHP Billiton chief executive Marius Kloppers has reiterated that a combined BHP-Rio Tinto entity would provide the best value for shareholders and the miner was well positioned to make the most of the commodities boom, with or without Rio Tinto.

Mr Kloppers made the statements in a speech at the Melbourne Mining Club lunch on Thursday.

“If our takeover of Rio is successful -- and I believe it will be successful -- the combination should create even greater value for shareholders,” Mr Kloppers said.

“But with or without Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton will continue to deliver exceptional performance."

Mr Kloppers said that strong demand for commodities has led to the historically higher than average prices over the past few years, with China the key driver.

“We are also well aware that China has been and will continue to be a key driver of this demand for commodities,” he said.

With regards to problems faced by the mining sector, Mr Kloppers said that the industry was tackling rising inflationary cost pressures and a labour shortage.

“The industry has also experienced real and substantial rising inflationary cost pressures that serve to encourage longer lead times for projects.”

“And when you add in the issue of a significant shortage of available labour - which is an issue particularly here in Australia - it very soon becomes much more challenging to deliver large projects -and therefore more product - quickly.” he said.

According to Mr Kloppers, for Australia to meet the burgeoning demand in commodities, it needs to maximise investment in infrastructure which would enable rapid and efficient expansion of capacity.

He also reiterated future growth of around 7 per cent a year for the next five years.