BHP chief says big mining will meet demand

Marius Kloppers said the big mining houses had the capacity to meet the world’s rising demand for fuels and ores in the coming decades in a speech where he also sought to downplay fears expressed by industrialising nations over “resources security”.

But the BHP Billiton chief executive also underlined the scale of demand expected from fast-developing nations when he said China alone may require five times as much iron ore in the next 15 years as it had in the past 15 years. By 2030, China would have more than 220 cities with populations above 1m people, Mr Kloppers said.