BHP rules out return to Broken Hill as it passes on copper project buy
BHP has told Havilah Resources it will not exercise an option to acquire its copper project near Broken Hill, triggering a 24 per cent slump in the explorer’s share price.
BHP inherited an option to buy Havilah’s Kalkaroo copper and gold project through its $9.6 billion acquisition of OZ Minerals earlier this year. However, the company confirmed on Tuesday that it would not take up those rights.
Broken Hill is the birthplace of BHP. But the miner has declined to take up an option on a copper project in the area. Rhett Wyman
Michelle Ash, BHP’s copper growth vice president, said it would instead channel its efforts on integrating OZ’s Carrapateena and Prominent Hill copper mines with BHP’s Olympic Dam and Oak Dam assets.
“We believe that Kalkaroo is an attractive copper asset that will be developed, but our focus is on optimisation of the Gawler Craton copper assets,” Ms Ash said.
The decision rules out a nostalgic return to Broken Hill, where a syndicate of seven prospectors gave rise to Broken Hill Proprietary in 1885.
Creation of BHP is not Broken Hill’s only claim to being the cradle of the Australian mining industry; Rio Tinto’s local roots also go back to the waste rock piles at Broken Hill, where a Rio antecedent, The Zinc Corporation, extracted base metals left by others.
Newmont chief executive Tom Palmer was also born in Broken Hill.
Havilah shares closed 21 per cent lower to 21¢ on Tuesday; the stock’s lowest price in 19 months.
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