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Broken Hill Proprietary

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Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP), Australia's largest publicly traded company, said it would proceed with the development of a US$650 million hot briquetted iron plant in Venezuela.

The plant is an equal joint venture between BHP and Venezuela's largest publicly traded industrial company, Siderurgica Venezolana Sivensa.

BHP's contribution to the new project's costs would be $160 million. The plant would produce 2.2 million tonnes a year of briquetted iron when it starts producing in late 1999, BHP said. The project also would incorporate the existing 400,000 tonnes-a-year Fior de Venezuela HBI plant, taking total production to 2.6 million tonnes.

Hot briquetted iron is used to boost the iron ore content of scrap steel. The briquettes are about the size and shape of soap bars. Venezuela is one of the world's biggest producers of direct reduced iron. Sivensa already has two briquetted iron plants.

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