Verification Statement

Environmental Resources Management (ERM) was requested by BHP Billiton Limited to assess and comment upon the accuracy of the data used in the Annual Health, Safety, Environment and Community (HSEC) Report for the period 1 July 2001 to 30 June 2002.

ERM undertook this assessment by reviewing the on-site data collection process, the data management and collation process, and the synthesis of this data into the tables, graphs and statements that are presented in this Annual HSEC Report.

Ten sites were selected from the operations managed by BHP Billiton in order to determine the robustness of data collection processes at the operational level. The sites were selected to provide a representative sample of BHP Billiton's geographical spread, operational types, the age of operations, and social and environmental settings. The sites were the San Juan coal mine in the USA, the Cerro Matoso nickel mine, refinery and smelter in Colombia, the Liverpool Bay oil and gas facility in the UK, the Meyerton manganese operation and the Douglas coal mine in South Africa, the Mozal aluminium smelter in Mozambique, the Beenup mineral sands project, the Cannington silver-lead-zinc mine and the Blackwater coal mine in Australia, and a steel works in Thailand. The data collection process was examined at each of these sites and key personnel involved in data collection were interviewed.

The collation of the data at BHP Billiton's offices in Melbourne, Australia, was examined. Members of the team in Melbourne who were instrumental in analysing and drawing conclusions from the data were interviewed and their analytical activities were shadowed. Selected calculation steps were independently repeated by ERM to check the veracity of the interpreted data for samples of key HSEC parameters discussed in this Annual Report.

Conclusions drawn from the data and corresponding statements made in this Annual HSEC Report were reviewed by ERM in the context of the robustness of data. Case studies were not included in this review.

Observations
In general, the data collection, collation and interpretation processes exhibited by BHP Billiton at its individual operating sites and its offices in Melbourne provide a sound basis for the credible reporting of performance.

BHP Billiton is undertaking its first globally integrated data collection process since the merger in June 2001, and many support systems contributing to this process are still in development. Although a large volume of data was collected, some data sets require a greater degree of consistency in reporting at the operational level before firm conclusions on company-wide performance can be drawn from them. BHP Billiton has recognised these limitations where they exist and applied sound judgement to the selection of data for inclusion in this Annual Report. Where inaccuracies have been identified, none have resulted in any material skewing of the results presented.

Some opportunities for improvement in future annual reporting are as follows:

• The definition of rehabilitation in relation to land resources varies, by necessity, from site to site – but its application at the site-based reporting phase was not always evidenced;
• Although the use of hearing protection was consistently high across sites, there were varying degrees of completeness in the assessment of the number of personnel potentially exposed to excessive noise; and
• Whereas some sites showed evidence of integrated communication in compiling accurate HSEC data from various departments, others were less advanced in this respect.

Opinion
On the basis of the activities undertaken to verify the content of this report, we believe that the material presented in the Annual HSEC Report is a fair and reasonable representation of actual company performance on reported HSEC issues across the operations managed by BHP Billiton.

Raj Aseervatham Principal, Mining

David Snashall Principal

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