CAPE TOWN, Feb 9 (Reuters) - BHP Billiton's (BLT.L) South African coal subsidiary, one of the world's largest coal exporters, will produce 34 million tonnes in 2009 compared to 48 million last year, an official said on Monday.
BHP's output is set to fall after the company sold its Optima coal mine in a black economic empowerment (BEE) deal. BEE is a government-driven programme meant to include blacks in the mainstream economy after years of exclusion under apartheid.
"The forecast for BHP's (total) production in 2009 would be in the region of 34 million (tonnes)," Wilco Uys, BHP's vice president for coal operations in South Africa told Reuters on the sidelines of a mining conference in Cape Town.
Uys said BHP Billiton was on track to boost coal production by 2011 as it begins to reap the rewards of a $1.4 billion investment to upgrade sites.
It will spend $450 million for its Klipspruit project, which includes a 16 million tonnes per annum coal processing plant in a 50-50 joint venture with Anglo Coal, a unit of Anglo American Plc (AAL.L).
It will also spend a further $975 million on its Douglas Middleburg optimisation project, which will develop new mining areas and feed into a new plant.
South Africa is expected to export 65 to 68 million tonnes of thermal coal in 2009, 4 million of which is acounted for by black-owned junior miners.
"We still foresee that... we would be within our project schedule and that's to commission the (Klipspruit) plant by July 1 this year," Uys said.
The adjacent mine will ramp up output to a maximum 8 million tonnes per annum by 2011 from a current capacity of 4.2 million tonnes per annum, said Uys.
source: Reuters 9 February 2009
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