BHP Billiton China Staff Donate Sporting Equipments to Seven Schools in Zhangjiachuan, Gansu Province

Beijing, September 17 – As part of the company’s Matched Giving Program (MGP)  to encourage employees’ contribution to the local community, BHP Billiton China staffs gathered at Zhangjiachuan County in Gansu Province in mid September to donate sporting equipments to seven primary schools in the area.

At a small ceremony on September 16 in one of the sponsored schools, around 300 teachers and students from Zhangjiachuan were joined by local government officials from the Education Bureau and the Poverty Alleviation Office.

After the ceremony, BHP Billiton China staffs joined the different teams of the schools playing in basketball, volleyball and tug of war matches.

The staffs also delivered an interactive 2-hour session to a class of 50 students and teachers in the afternoon on Olympics, BHP Billiton’s Olympics sponsorship and a lively Olympics knowledge contest.

Zhangjiachuan County, located in North West China’s Gansu Province, is one of

China’s most poverty stricken counties. Schools there are lack of proper sporting

equipments and students have limited opportunities of taking part in sporting

activities.

BHP Billiton China has been supporting a series of employee related community initiatives including the Matched Giving Program (MGP) in which BHP Billiton matches employees’ contribution towards their preferred not-for-profit organizations via cash donation, volunteering and fundraising.

Each year, each employee can apply for a maximum 200 US from the company for matching the employee’s contribution to the not-for-profits organizations the employees support.  The matched fund will be paid directly to the not-for-profit organization. The programme is part of BHP Billiton’s commitment to contribute 1% of its pre-tax profit to the communities it operates in.

Over the years, BHP Billiton China has participated in a wide range of sustainability and community activities in China including supporting the Lijiang Botanic Field Station in Yunnan, adopting a twin giant pandas in Wolong Sichuan, supporting Roots and Shoots’ school environmental education program and sponsoring  the public policy training  for Chinese government officials.  BHP Billiton is also the official sponsor of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the Paralympics Games.

BHP Billiton is the world’s largest diversified natural resources company, with some 38,000 employees across 100 operations in approximately 25 countries. Its operations encompass a broad range of commodities including aluminium, energy coal, metallurgical coal, copper, manganese, iron ore, uranium, nickel, diamonds, silver and titanium minerals, oil, gas, and liquefied natural gas.