Exploration and development report

Good to see that they are implementing their organic growth programme which is expected to exceed $80bn over a span of 5 years. Wow this company is in huge growth mode and it definitely has the resources to do it. For this quarter they have invested $9.8bn throughout their major projects focussing on Western Australia Iron Ore (WAIO) where they plan on doubling production to 220 million tonnes an annum. They definitely see sustainable demand coming through in the medium to long term. That is a good confidence boost for global growth expectations.

To put things into perspective Kumba Iron Ore, South Africa's biggest Iron Ore miner and the worlds 4th biggest, produced 43 million tons last year. Vale, the Brazilian based Miner and the world's biggest Iron Miner produced 308 million tons last year. You would expect with this Pilbara expansion, BHP could be challenging for that number 1 spot. Obviously Vale aren't standing still when it comes to their own developments. This project is now 95% complete and not far off.

Important expansions are also taking place in Metallurgical Coal, Potash, Copper and Uranium, covering all bases. Talking copper and uranium, that massive Olympic dam project is making progress. I read an article the other day which said that at current elevated commodity prices, the resource reserve value of that Olympic Dam asset is now worth more than the entire Australia annual GDP. Wow, that equates to $1.2 trillion. Obviously the stuff still needs to be extracted.

Petroleum exploration has been hampered by suspensions in the Gulf and not much development has taken affect in the quarter because of those suspensions. I think this is very temporary, in fact I heard last night that following the spill, 84 bills were introduced to congress, 2 passed the house and none were passed by the Senate. Money still trumps the environment at this stage.

All in all I am very much encouraged by this report. The company is heading towards global domination and is eating up everything in its way whether it be organic growth or possible acquisitions. Why wouldn't you invest in this company is the question you should be asking. For the full report, ---> check out this link from their website .