Our projects

Overview

Never before have our businesses been faced with such a scale, diversity and complexity of projects, increasingly in developing countries.  But we consider that how well we manage our projects in terms of sustainable development is as important as the value of resource itself.

So our project planning approach ensures that we integrate the technical, commercial, social and environmental elements into all our decision making.

How we manage our projects

We are finding that as new ore bodies become more difficult to find, and we are forced to explore in new regions where we do not have the same levels of experience, certainty or reputation, a disciplined project development approach is essential.

In addition, we are experiencing increasing costs, expectations and scrutiny from our stakeholders. On top of that, there is a shortage of experienced project staff and over-commitment of Engineering, Procurement, Construction Management (EPCM) houses. So our continued ability to deliver quality projects on time and within budget will be tested in the future.

Our projects pipeline ranges from concept through to construction, and incorporates order of magnitude, preliminary feasibility and feasibility studies. We recognise that the greatest opportunity to add value during the project development process is during the order of magnitude and pre-feasibility stages.

Common business tools are used to ensure our approach is uniform across the group and our focus is on increased collaboration and sharing of lessons learnt.

Our results

In 2007, we spent US$576 million on exploration, an increase of US$231 million over 2006, and our capital expenditure was US$4,765 million. 

We currently have over 60 major projects at various stages of development. But not all these projects will be developed after studies and evaluation.