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.