BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) Scrapped JV Marketing Plan

Sydney, Oct 15, 2009 AEST (ABN Newswire) - BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) said today that the two top miners in Australia have scrapped a plan to jointly market ore from a planned Australia joint venture.

BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto signed a non-binding agreement to establish a production joint venture covering the entirety of both companies' western Australian assets in June 2009. Under the agreement, up to 15 per cent of production was proposed to be sold by the joint venture, independent of Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

Now the two mining giants said they decided not to proceed with the joint venture marketing activity. All production from the proposed joint venture would be marketed separately.

"The two companies believe that this change will clarify the nature of the JV for customers and emphasize its focus on realising significant production and development synergies."

Their joint venture proposal, which aimed to reduce costs of both companies, has been strongly opposed by big iron ore consumers such as China and Japan. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto said they expected to finalise the joint venture agreement on schedule.

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