International Finance and Accounting Handbook

of disclosure of environmental information by Australian companies, particularly in
the area of acknowledgement of breaches in environmental regulations. (See Exhibit
23.1)

(iii) Denmark. Denmark has required mandatory environmental reporting since
1996, with approximately 3,000 companies now required to publish a “green ac-
count.” Green accounts were introduced as an amendment to the Environmental Pro-
tection Act in June 1995 and states in s.35a(1):

23.2 ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTING 23 • 3

Performance in relation to environmental regulation

Table 1: Fines and Prosecutions (2001)

BHP Business Fines and Prosecutions

Minerals • La Plata mine, New Mexico Coal, US, in July 2000 received a
fine of US$1,210 regarding an Office of Surface Mining in-
spection in March 2000, and subsequent Notice of Violation
relating to road use and maintenance, and sediment control
measures.

• Tower mine, Illawarra Coal, NSW, Australia, in March 2001 re-
  ceived two fines of $1,500 each for failure to comply with EPA
  licence conditions regarding recording of water flow rates.


• Appin mine, Illawarra Coal, NSW, Australia, in June 2001 re-
  ceived a $1,500 fine for failure to comply with EPA licence
  conditions regarding recording of water flow rates.

Petroleum • Liverpool Bay, UK, in November 2000, received a fine of
£40,000 following an oil spill of 345 bbls in June 1998.

Steel • Chullora Service Centre, NSW, Australia, received a $1,500
fine for contravening a license condition (late submission of
certificate) in August 2000.

• Port Kembla steelworks, NSW, Australia, in October 2000 re-
  ceived three fines of $1,500 each for sinter plant stack opacity
  exceedences.


• Port Kembla steelworks, NSW, Australia, in February 2001 re-
  ceived 10 fines of $1,500 each. These related to various of-
  fences, including failure to carry out emission surveys, fugitive
  dust emissions, emissions from a blocked standpipe cap, and
  sinter plant stack opacity exceedences.

Transport and Logistics • None

Exhibit 23.1. Disclosure from BHP Billiton Annual Report—Mandatory Requirement.

BHP Billiton Limited’s performance in rela-
tion to environmental regulation during 2001
(i.e. 12 months from 1 July 2000 to 30 June
2001) is measured by:

• the number and amount of fines and
  prosecutions incurred by BHP Billiton
  Limited’s world wide operations (Table
  1); and
  
  
  • the number of environmentally signifi-
    cant incidents (including non-compli-
    ances) that occurred in BHP Billiton
    Limited’s world wide operations. There
    were no significant incidents (i.e. sever-
    ity rating 3 or above) reported for 2001,
    based on BHP Billiton Limited’s internal
    severity rating scale (tiered 1 to 5 in
    terms of increasing severity).