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Four days ago marked two decades since Ratko Mladic became the commander of the main staff of the army of Republika Srpska - the VRS. On that day, Mladic began his full participation in a criminal endeavour that was already in progress. On that day, he assumed the mantle of realising through military might the criminal goals of ethnically cleansing much of Bosnia. On that day he commenced his direct involvement in serious international crimes.

Dermot Groome

The prosecuting counsel of the War Crimes tribunal convened to hear charges against Gen. Ratko Mladic was making his opening comments at the hearing.

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Amid doubts about potential, BHP withdraws from Altia joint venture

Amid doubts about potential, BHP withdraws from Altia joint venture

SYDNEY - Global mining giant BHP Billiton has decided to withdraw from the Altia joint venture project with Breakaway Resources for prospecting silver, lead and zinc in north Queensland amid doubts over the potential.

BHP Billiton has decided to withdraw from a prospecting joint venture in Australia following a commercial and technical review of a drilling campaign at the 7.5-million-ounce Altia silver deposit, Breakaway Resources said Thursday.

In a statement, Breakaway said BHP had informed the company that it believed there was limited potential for the discovery to be mined in a way that would meet its commercial criteria - although drilling in 2010 and 2011 demonstrated the Altia project in Queensland lies within a broad system with silver, lead and zinc mineralization.

Breakaway said the existing inferred mineral resource at Altia remains intact and BHP's withdrawal from the project 70km south-east of Cloncurry created a major exploration opportunity.

The departure of BHP will provide Breakaway, the smaller partner, unrestricted access to three advanced exploration targets within the area covered by the joint venture.

The decision by BHP to withdraw from the joint venture comes just a day after the company's chairman Jac Nasser said the company was rethinking plans of spending $80 billion for growth projects up until 2015.

"If we can't meet our criteria in any one project, product or geography, we will redirect our capital somewhere else or we simply won't invest at all," Nasser said.

BHP chairman's comments, made at a business lunch on Wednesday, signaled that the resources giant was stepping back from its previous commitments to expand production globally, amid dropping commodity prices and doubts about European growth prospects.

BHP is pulling back from projects in response to the recent dip in commodity prices and the negative outlook for Chinese demand.

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