The equivalent of an Australian village has come up for sale, provided the new owner is prepared to take it apart and cart it away from its current location near a refinery in Western Australia.
BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) has invited offers for a 1,408-bed construction camp currently being used to house workers on the expansion of its Worsley Alumina operation. The facilities include en-suite single-bed units, a 1,000-seat dining hall, kitchen, maintenance sheds, a tavern and recreation facilities.
In an ad published in Australian newspapers, the company said the facilities are offered "as-is, where-is, in one lot."
The camp was built in 2008 near the Worsley refinery, about 25 kilometers west of the town of Collie, south of Perth. It is expected to become available in the first quarter of next year.
It isn't unusual for these types of accommodation camps to come up for sale, a spokeswoman for BHP said, particularly in a country benefiting from a mining boom driven by strong demand for key metals and minerals in China and other industrializing economies. Mining companies including BHP, Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. (FMG.AU) are investing billions of dollars boosting mining capacity in Western Australia alone.
The Worsley camp reached its current capacity in January, but the need for accomodation will begin to fall away at the site as the expansion project reaches completion in the first half of 2012. BHP in June estimated the capital cost for the Worsley project had increased to almost US$3 billion from a US$1.9 billion figure given in May 2008 due to its complexity and inflationary pressures.
According to BHP's ad, interested parties have until Oct. 28 to express an interest in the Mornington Village facilities. The terms of the sale include deconstruction, removal and site clean up, it said.
BHP owns 86% of Worsley, while Japan Alumina Associates holds 10% and a unit of Sojitz Corp. owns the remaining 4% stake.
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