BHP's coper concern

摘要

The share price of Australia's largest company. Broken Hill Proprietary Co. (BHP), has been under pressure during the past two weeks ahead of its first quarter results (due out on September 20). Last week the company admitted that the weak copper price was cause for concern. In an interview with Eeuters, BHP's managing director, John Prescott, identified the need to improve performances in the copper sector as the company's biggest challenge. Since acquiring Magma Copper for 2,400 million US dollars at the start of this year (MJ, December 8, 1995, p.429), BHP has seen the copper price fall by over 20 percent to barely 0.90 US dollars/lb. Each 1 c/lb change in the copper price affects BHP's net profit by some 16 million Australia dollars. In its recently-released annual report for the year to end-May, BHP noted that its major growth prospects for copper were development of the Lower Kalamazoo ore-body in Arizona, and full commissioning of the Robinson mine in Nevada. In addition, BHP reports potential for possible oxide projects at Escondida and Tintaya, and for in-situ leaching at Florence, in the U.S.