Australian pilot strike may affect BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto

Mining operations in Western Australia, including those of BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto Group, may be affected after some pilots at National Jet Systems voted to strike over pay. "It could have a significant impact" on moving workers to and from sites, Chris Platt, a spokesman for the Australian Mines and Metals Association, said by phone on Tuesday. "That area produces somewhere between A$20 billion to A$40 billion (US$33 billion) of exports a year, so it is a significant issue." Western Australia, which last year exported A$48.4 billion of minerals and petroleum, is the country's largest exporter of iron ore. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, the world's second- and third-largest producers of the ore, own mines in the state's Pilbara region. Industrial action could start within three weeks, according to the nation's Transport Workers Union. "We use National Jet to carry workers to a number of our mines in the Pilbara region," Gervase Greene, a spokesman for Rio Tinto's iron ore unit, said over the phone. "We have not been notified by National Jet of any likely impact and we would hope it doesn't come to that." About 70 National Jet pilots, which also fly some regional services for Qantas, Australia's largest airline, on Monday voted in Perth to strike, Rick Burton, an organizer for the Transport Workers Union, said on Tuesday. The date of any industrial action hasn't yet been fixed, he said. A spokesperson for BHP Billiton could not immediately be reached for comment. Port Hedland, from where BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto export iron ore, is 1,639 km (1,019 miles) from the state's capital Perth. National Jet also runs two daily, chartered flights to the Murrin Murrin nickel mine, owned by Australia's second-largest nickel mining company Minara Resources Ltd., David Griffiths, a Minara spokesman said on Tuesday.