Diamonds & Specialty Products
The Diamonds and Specialty Products group encompasses Diamonds and Titanium Minerals.
Operations
BHP Billiton in Canada: Bringing Opportunity to Saskatchewan
The Jansen, Boulder, and Young Projects near LeRoy, Nokomis, and Young, Saskatchewan will be carefully planned operations focused on sustainability, the environment, and the community. These projects will provide opportunities for people throughout the province of Saskatchewan.
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The cornerstone of BHP Billiton’s Diamonds business is the EKATI Diamond Mine, of which we own 80 per cent. EKATI is located in the Canada’s Northwest Territories and produces approximately three million carats of rough diamonds annually. Annual sales from EKATI (including minority shares) represent around three per cent of current world rough diamond supply by weight and five per cent by value. We sell most of our rough diamonds to international diamond buyers through our Antwerp sales office. We sell up to 10 per cent of our rough diamonds to two Canadian manufacturers, and we sell both polished and rough diamonds directly to jewellers. We sell polished diamonds, manufactured through contract polishing arrangements, through our CanadaMark™ and AURIAS ™ brands. For information about our Diamonds and Specialty Products marketing activities, see Diamonds and Specialty Products in Customer Centre.
Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) is a 50 per cent owned heavy mineral sands mine and smelter situated in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. RBM is a major producer of titania slag, high purity pig iron, rutile and zircon. We have a titania slag project at Corridor Sands in Mozambique.
BHP Billiton's EKATI Diamond Mine and the Government of the Northwest Territories in Canada (GNWT) entered into a Socio-Economic Agreement (SEA) in October 1996. The Agreement addresses specific socioeconomic factors that relate to the construction and operation of EKATI Diamond Mine. This report provides the results for the operations phase for employment and spending from January 1 through December 31, 2008 according to the criteria identified in the Socio-Economic Agreement.
Please click here to read our 2008 Sustainable Development Report.
