BHP Billiton

Global mining giant BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) have announced its first half profits to shareholders, traders and investors participating on the sharemarket.

• BHP Chief Executive Officer Marius Kloppers has retired from his role after 6 years at the helm. He will step down on May 10 2013.

Australian mining giant, BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) have released their full year profit results to the ASX stockmarket. As previously reported, there were not many surprises in the final report release.

• BHP abandons plans for US$30 billion expansion plan for their Olympic Dam copper/uranium project
• Full year net profit fell to US$15.42 billion. (AUD$14.77 billion)

This week, Australia's biggest listed company on the Australian sharemarket, BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) will release its yearly results.

• Market consensus predicts net profit to be US$16.9 billion. (AUD$16.14 billion)
• Last year's net profit was reported to be $22 billion, an Australian corporate record.
• Marius Kloppers, CEO and Mike Yeager, Head of Petroleum division have foregone their bonuses. Last year bonuses were $7.4 million.

Anglo-Australian company BHP Billiton (BHP) expects to exceed its iron ore production guidance of 159 million tonnes after its first half production increased by 23 per cent.

BHP produced 41,072 million tonnes of iron ore in the second quarter, which is four per cent higher than the first three months of the the fiscal year. The iron ore production of the company increased 23 per cent to 80,644 million tonnes for the first half compared to the previous corresponding period.

BHP Billiton (BHP) has decided to buy five tenements nearby its Olympic Dam mine from Archer Exploration (AXE) for $3 million. The deal between the companies will bring BHP to an 80 per cent interest in the five tenements at West Roxby.

Woodside Petroleum (WPL has announced today its approval of the $2.5 billion development of the Greater Western Flank (GWF) project to mark the expansion of North West Shelf. The first phase of GWF will also include the development of Goodwyn GH and Tidepole fields.

Mining giant BHP Billiton (BHP) is on its move to grow its US shale gas assets of its newly-acquired Petrohawk Energy as it boosts the gas production by 12 percent on the previous quarter and seems to have beaten its 2011 capital spending target. The mining company have raised its assets from 85.5 billion cubic feet in the previous quarter to 96.5 billion cubic feet in the three months to September 30.

The federal and state government has approved BHP Billiton's (ASX:BHP) plan to expand the Olympic Dam copper, uranium and gold mine in South Australia. The $30 billion mine expansion could mean huge economic benefits, but Greens is protesting it will create radioactive waste.

The plan to create the world’s largest open-cut mine won the nod of the commonwealth, South Australian and Northern Territory governments yesterday.

Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) continues operations in its Guinea ore project despite the country's new mining code stating it can take up to 35 percent of projects. The miner has already agreed to this percentage upper limit when it paid Guinea US$700 million, confirmed by Rio on Easter this year.