BHP Billiton has walked out on a joint venture to develop the Altia copper and silver deposit in Queensland, just a day after the company’s chairman and chief executive warned they would scale back on investments.
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BHP has walked out on the Altia deposit — a joint venture with ASX-listed Breakaway Resources — citing the disappointing results of a ‘‘commercial and technical review’’ of the project.
BHP Billiton chairman Jac Nasser yesterday backed away from the company's commitment to spend $80 billion on growth projects over the next five years.
‘‘If we can't meet our criteria in any one project, product or geography, we will redirect our capital somewhere else or we simply won’t invest at all,’’ Nasser said.
The words were echoed by Mr Kloppers, as BHP’s leadership team warned Australia is becoming less attractive to the company at a time when they have to choose between development projects.
BHP is pulling back from projects in response to recent falls in commodity prices and the negative outlook for Chinese demand.
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