BHP positioning to sell uranium to China

BHP Billiton Ltd, 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 the country was "gearing up" for a bigger build program as it developed its nuclear program. "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," Mr Kloppers said in a DVD sent to shareholders. BHP Billiton holds the largest known uranium deposit at its Olympic Dam mine in South Australia, which is about 560 kilometres north of Adelaide. "If the world is serious about cutting carbon emissions, then you cannot have a debate without the nuclear piece in that debate, because it is the most efficient way to cut carbon emissions," chairman Don Argus added. The company supplies uranium to utility customers in the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Canada and the United States. BHP Billiton could potentially expand its uranium portfolio if the company is successful in its proposed $US140 billion ($A168.51 billion) takeover of rival Rio Tinto Ltd. Rio Tinto is the world's second largest uranium producer and hold's the Rossing mine in Namibia and a 68.4 per stake in Energy Resources of Australia Ltd, which operates the Ranger mine in the Northern Territory. Mr Argus said the proposal was a "value bid" and scotched suggestions the company needed to increase the 3.4 shares for every Rio Tinto share offer. "We think we've created the value bid now, and it's a relative value bid that's on the table, or it's a conditional relative value bid, and I probably could run a different argument with petroleum running pretty strongly at the moment, that probably it's overpriced," he said. The proposal requires approval from regulators in the European Union, United States, Australia and South Africa. －－by the age.com.au