BHP Billiton publishes Production Report for the Half Year Ended 31 December 2009

During the December quarter we saw strong price recovery across the commodity suite driven by demand in China and restocking in the developed world.

Government stimulus measures appear to have supported a gradual return to normalised global trade, albeit from a low base, and most key indicators across the developed economies showed improvement.

Going forward the speed of recovery in the developed economies remains uncertain, particularly considering the eventual withdrawal of government stimulus. In China the impact of measures to control loan growth will add another future variable.

Consequently we expect some degree of volatility in the short term outlook for our commodities.

Alumina – Production was higher than all comparative periods due to the continued ramp up of the Alumar refinery expansion. Alumar is currently operating at 80 per cent of the new nameplate capacity and is expected to reach full capacity by the end of June 2010. However, production during the September 2009 quarter was impacted by an unplanned calciner outage at Worsley Alumina (Australia). The Worsley stockpiled hydrate is expected to be recovered by the end of the June 2010 financial year.

Aluminium – Production across all operations was in line with comparative periods.