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Mr Mahomed Seedat, Master of Ceremonies and Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Aluminium BHP Billiton Southern Africa,
Dr Ben Ngubane, Minister Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and Mrs Sheila Ngubane,
Mr Mike Mabuyakhulu, Minister Economic Development and Tourism,
Mr Narend Singh, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Agriculture,
His Excellency Mr David Connolly, High Commission Australia,
Mr David Pearce, British Consul-General,
Councillor Danny Moffat,
Mayor of Mhlathuze and Mrs Margo Moffat,
Mr B B Biyela, Municipal Manager uThungulu District Municipality,
Mr Don Argus, Chairman BHP Billiton,
Mr Brian Gilbertson, Deputy Chief Executive BHP Billiton,
Members of the BHP Billiton Board: Mike Salamon, Ben Alberts, John Conde and Barry Romeril.

Today we witness a further investment being made in the city of Umhlathuze, which is a model of good governance. We have no doubt that investor confidence in Richards Bay and the efficient Umhlathuze municipality is boosting environment. It should be stated for the record that Umhlathuze collects some 96% of its debtors.

We acknowledge that heavy industry does not create many jobs. As a guideline for every one job created, some 8 to 32 indirect jobs will be created. R55 billion has been invested in Richards Bay, of which some R5 billion has been spent over the past five years.

On this occasion we record progress made in the SMME sector. The DAPP or downstream aluminium pilot project has been started. This is an SMME project and the Billiton Trust has shown their social responsibility in this regard by contributing R1 million as well as R600 thousand per year for three years to kickstart the project. The KwaZulu-Natal Province has invested R370 thousand. The SDI contribution amounts to R30 thousand. We record our appreciation to the Department of Trade and Industry for its commitment to supporting the development of SMMEs.

Mr Chairman, your announcement today is wonderful news for our province and for South Africa as it represents real direct investment into the province and the country. It is yet another chapter in the stunning success story of your operation in KwaZulu-Natal which, goes back more than thirty years and brings the Hillside investment alone to seven point two billion Rands and your production capacity to 640 000 tonnes per annum.

Hillside and Bayside smelters have become an essential part of South Africa's industrial scene and, are largely responsible for the development of Richards Bay, changing it from a sleepy fishing village to an industrial giant.

The development of Hillside and Bayside smelters are also a tribute to sound industrial planning and the philosophy of locating industrial nodes only where they are sustainable. Too often in South Africa's past and, present I am afraid, decisions on the placement of infrastructural development nodes by government are dictated by political criteria as much as economic sense.

The most exiting aspect of this economic miracle that you have created here is that it is going to be an ongoing success story, as aluminium is the metal of the future and the metal of opportunity ... unlimited opportunity. There is no doubt that you already are a world leader in aluminium production. You already operate the largest commercial production plant in the world, which also happens to be the cleanest and most efficient. I was fascinated to learn that your Hillside smelter was originally designed to produce 466 000 tonnes per annum which output you have increased to 500 000 tonnes per annum simply by the use of good management and process control.

For us ordinary folk the scale of your operation can best be understood by looking at some of the statistics, which Hillside and Bayside smelters generate, for instance, how many of us knew that you are the third largest consumer of electricity in South Africa? Your consumption is the equivalent of the combined consumption of the cities of East London and Port Elizabeth and your consumption of 1095 megawatts is exceeded only by Durban and Cape Town. You are also the most efficient user of power requiring only 13.6-megawatt hours per ton produced.

I wonder how many of us know that to keep your plant operational you will require each fortnight a 60 000 ton shipment of alumina and 25 000 tonnes of coke each month.

Another fascinating side of your stunning expansion in our province are the synergies, which have come into play making this investment especially attractive to you as a result of the expansion of your Worsley alumina refinery in Western Australia. This is globalisation working at its best.

Of course, the beauty of the Hillside/Bayside smelter operations is the fact that Hillside produces only re-melt ingots whilst Bayside focuses on value added products, i.e beneficiation, and this is where your strength comes in. The complementary interlocking of your production capacity allows for high value exports of the beneficiated product with unlimited scope to increase your penetration into the world markets as well as, the knock on effect that this wonderful development has created for other industries, to name but two, Huletts Aluminium in Pietermartzburg which has just recently completed a one-and-a-half billion Rand expansion allowing it to make big inroads into the world markets and Tiger Wheels also involved in high value exports.

My government and I are very conscious that you have given our province and its government a vote of confidence by your investment here, which confidence I am determined we will justify. The 1 000 jobs that will be generated during the construction period are most welcome in a region where unemployment has reached desperation levels. There will of course be many other jobs created ranging from increasing employment at the harbour to further increases in benefication of the product and increased opportunities in both the local and export markets.

The success of BHP Billiton has been based on dedication of the company in its quest for technological excellence and, just as important its commitment to social upliftment, capacity building and education. Your social upliftment programme is I suspect unique in that it is managed by the Zululand Chamber of Business Foundation, it has certainly been very successful as I note that your upliftment programmes have been internationally recognised. BHP Billiton's commitment to responsible corporate governance has also been recognised by the award of the Noscar Trophy in April of 2001 to the Bayside smelter.

Mr Chairman, I as head of government in this province make a solemn undertaking to you, your Board and every worker, that my government will do everything in its power to assist your company in any way it can with your feasibility study and your environmental impact assessment and here I want to give another assurance that my door will always be open to you.

In conclusion, Mr Chairman, we in KwaZulu Natal and, speaking for the whole of South Africa, are thrilled with your plans of expansion in our province.

They give us the opportunity to further enter global markets on a level of excellence equal to any in the world.

Your decision to invest here reinforces my view that economic expansion in developing countries has to take place around existing areas of excellence, which avoids wasteful and useless duplication of infrastructure, which very often is never utilised efficiently and, is almost always dependant on government sponsored incentives or subsidised rail tariffs to work at all.

I wish to congratulate you and your group and give you our best wishes for success in the future. My government and I will be with you all the way.

Let us face the reality that the industrial development of Richards Bay and Empangeni demands an efficient link road, which is capable of carrying heavy volumes of traffic. Thus the upgrading of the John Ross Highway will improve the flow of traffic and the transportation of goods and services. We accept that in the event of the national government being unable to raise sufficient funding for this project, tolling could be an unfortunate reality. As leaders we have the responsibility to support the upgrading of the John Ross Highway.

It is now our pleasant duty to declare the new projects official open.

I thank you.

Issued by Office of the Premier, KwaZulu-Natal

12 February 2002