olympic damn expansion cancelled, page-18

Thanks Hingdog and others, you are right the ALP is absolutely clueless. Swan "the dog ate my mining boom" is partially responsible as the timing on the MRRT and CT are shockingly bad.

BHP have not stated it is cancelled yet this is what they had to say:

"BHP Billiton announced today that it will investigate an alternative, less capital-intensive design of the Olympic Dam open-pit expansion, involving new technologies, to substantially improve the economics of the project. As a result it will not be ready to approve an expansion of Olympic Dam before the Indenture agreement deadline of 15 December 2012. The Company will discuss the implications of this decision for the Indenture agreement with the South Australian Government in the coming months.

BHP Billiton CEO, Marius Kloppers, said current market conditions, including subdued commodity prices and higher capital costs, had led to the decision:

“As we finalised all the details of the project in the context of current market conditions, our strategy and capital management priorities, it became clear that the right decision for the Company and its shareholders was to continue studies to develop a less capital intensive option to replace the underground mine at Olympic Dam."

That came from the ASX release today.

Yeldubs pipeline of "investment" is a pipe dream as I have been saying. Half committed is bull you have to look at what they mean by committed - I think you will find they have decided to proceed and that can get axed in a heartbeat. How much is funded is the real question, then how much will be cancelled.

The GDP will not look too pretty if Swanny cuts spending because industry is already cutting investment and he relies on massive deficits to make good growth numbers - all debt funded. Oh but consumption will be up due to cash handouts as compensation for pushing up costs for families.
His precious employment figure does not reflect the number of workers that have given up looking or 'adjusted' for the real number yet due to the ABS methodology on this metric.

I warned about China slowing and costs rising and he gfawed and ROFLed at me - well who looks wrong AGAIN now? Yeldub and Swan and the whole ALP do! Who is stupid on the economy Yeldub?

Cheers,
CW