BHP Agrees to Pay Mitsubishi Materials 70 Percent More in Fees

By Jae Hur

Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's biggest mining company, agreed to pay Mitsubishi Materials Corp. 70 percent more in 2009 copper processing fees, the first increase in three years.

``We reached a deal with BHP today,'' Nobuyuki Suzuki, spokesman at the Tokyo-based company, said. The fees were at the same level as those settled with Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., the world's second-largest copper producer, he said.

Freeport and Mitsubishi Materials set the 2009 processing fees at $75 a metric ton for smelting ore and 7.5 cents a pound for refining, the Japanese company said last week. That compares with 2008 fees of $45 and 4.5 cents and $60 and 6 cents in 2007.

The Melbourne-based mining company agreed the same rates yesterday with Pan Pacific Copper Co..

To contact the reporter on this story: Jae Hur in Singapore at jhur1@bloomberg.net