ITOCHU and Mitsui Acquire Interests in BHP Iron Ore Jimblebar

June 21, 2013

ITOCHU　Corporation (head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Masahiro OKAFUJI; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Masami IIJIMA; hereinafter “Mitsui”) are pleased to announce that they have agreed to acquire interests in BHP Iron Ore (Jimblebar) Pty. Ltd. which is developing the Jimblebar Iron Ore mine (hereinafter “Jimblebar”) in Western Australia, part of the Iron Ore business of leading mining company, BHP Billiton (Australia & UK). Binding documents have been executed this morning.

ITOCHU and Mitsui will acquire 8% and 7% interests respectively in Jimblebar and BHP Billiton will hold 85%. The investment amounts are approximately US$0.8 billion (76.0 billion yen) for ITOCHU and US$0.7 billion (66.5 billion yen) for Mitsui. ITOCHU and Mitsui will also contribute future development costs for Jimblebar in proportion to their shares.

Jimblebar is a large prospective deposit located 41km east of Newman in the Pilbara region. The mine is now under construction and will be a large scale, low cost, open pit mining operation with an initial production capacity of 35 million tons per annum, and with embedded options for expansion to 55 million tons per annum for incremental capital investment.

ITOCHU and Mitsui, together with BHP Billiton, have a long term relationship in three iron ore joint ventures, Mt. Newman, Yandi, and Mt. Goldsworthy in Western Australia (BHP Billiton holds an 85% share, ITOCHU 8%, Mitsui 7%), and Jimblebar ore will be transported through the rail and port facilities owned by these joint ventures. The three joint ventures shipped a total quantity of approximately 180 million tons in financial year 2012, and are currently expanding infrastructure capacity to 220 million tons per annum (including to service Jimblebar).

Through this transaction, ITOCHU and Mitsui seek to increase iron ore supply capacity through the Western Australia Iron Ore operations, in response to the expected increase in the medium to long term worldwide iron ore demand.

Profile of BHP Billiton

Established	June 30^th 2001 A leading mining company established as a result of the merger of Australia's Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP), which focused on iron ore, coal, oil, natural gas, and other resources, and the UK's Billiton (with a Dutch and South African background), which specialized in aluminum, nonferrous, coal, etc.
Head Office	Melbourne, Australia A dual-listed company in Sydney and London. Also listed on markets in Johannesburg (South Africa) and New York.
Recent Performance	Full year ending June 2012 (July 2011 – June 2012): Proceeds: US$72,226 million (Approximately \ 6.9 trillion) Earnings after tax: US$17,117 million (Approximately \ 1.6 trillion) Half year ending June 2013 (July 2012 – December 2012): Proceeds: US$32,204 million (Approximately \ 3.1 trillion) Earnings after tax: US$5,683 million (Approximately \ 0.5 trillion)

Established

June 30^th 2001

A leading mining company established as a result of the merger of Australia's Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP), which focused on iron ore, coal, oil, natural gas, and other resources, and the UK's Billiton (with a Dutch and South African background), which specialized in aluminum, nonferrous, coal, etc.

Head Office

Melbourne, Australia

A dual-listed company in Sydney and London. Also listed on markets in Johannesburg (South Africa) and New York.

Recent Performance

Full year ending June 2012 (July 2011 – June 2012):

Proceeds: US$72,226 million (Approximately \ 6.9 trillion)

Earnings after tax: US$17,117 million (Approximately \ 1.6 trillion)

Half year ending June 2013 (July 2012 – December 2012):

Proceeds: US$32,204 million (Approximately \ 3.1 trillion)

Earnings after tax: US$5,683 million (Approximately \ 0.5 trillion)

＜Reference＞

Project Location
Map: Locations of the Joint Ventures with BHP Billiton and the Jimblebar Mine