Kloppers said the last 12 months had been a rollercoaster of high demand, which later fell sharply and it would be hard to see real demand until early next year.

He said after intensive destocking, there was emerging demand in North America, Europe and Japan, but said it would be at least until early next year before a clean set of underlying demand figures could come through.

In spite of a year that saw massive writedowns on nickel plants, results beat market forecasts as base metals earnings were not as weak as expected and cashflow was strong.

Kloppers said the company had not yet taken a decision on whether to sell its Ravensthorpe nickel operation. A source with direct knowledge of the matter said last Friday the mine would be sold and could fetch $1 billion.

But he said the group was keen to expand into the potash business

"We are hoping we can put a bit of capital to work on that project in the next few years," he said.

On acquisitions, Kloppers said the company was keen to buy assets that replenish its resources in the long term, which in most cases were assets that were not yet fully developed.

"We want to keep a simple company with extremely long life, low cost assets. Those assets come to market relatively rarely, and it's extremely difficult to predict that timing," he said.

"We will always be acquiring things, but we don't want to profile this company as being primarily positioned to take advantage of the M&A market."

He said BHP had a wide range of good assets that were cash generative in good and bad economic times, and could help the company sustain dividend payments and invest even in hard times.

The company was not selling any large assets, he said.

SEES DEMAND FROM INDIA

In a wide ranging briefing, Kloppers said he viewed India as a big giant in terms of future demand, mainly for the company's energy products, and reaffirmed BHP Billiton's plans to build a large aluminum smelter in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The plant was still in the feasibility study stages.

"The hydro potential in that area is large. This is a project still in its early stages of being studied," he said.

Kloppers said BHP Billiton was interested in platinum mining, but was not ready to enter into the mining of the metal, in which South Africa is the biggest producer, because of safety concerns. The sector has been hit by mining deaths that have marred its image and caused stoppages after accidents hurt output.

He said BHP would remain on the sidelines unless the mining technology changes to improve workers' safety.

"The platinum business would be something that is interesting, but we can't get over the fact that platinum mining has certain safety issues where you have a large number of workers exposed to deep underground mining," he said. (Reporting by James Macharia; Editing Bernard Orr)

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Note : I took the liberty of putting parts of the article in bold considering those as pointers towards forward investment ideas to spur reflection . Tec