BHP wants to sell uranium to China for decades

BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, is positioning itself to supply China with uranium for “decades” as the country ramps up its nuclear plant program in a carbon conscious world.

Chief executive Marius Kloppers said nuclear energy would play a “bigger role” in China going forward and BHP Billiton was “very actively positioning” to be part of that.
“As China is developing its nuclear program, what it’s doing is it’s gearing up for a bigger build program,” Mr Kloppers said in a DVD sent to shareholders.

“That will take a couple of years, but clearly we are positioning the company to, from our side, participate in that over decades, not just a couple of years.”

BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium mine in South Australia, about 560 kilometres north of Adelaide, houses the world’s largest known uranium resource.

The company supplies uranium to utility customers in the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Canada and the United States.

The Age