Mining Slump Feeds M&A as Projects Overrun Budgets: Commodities

The world’s largest mining companies led by BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) are struggling with higher costs to complete $200 billion in new projects, prompting them to slow work and turn instead to acquisitions and asset sales.  BHP and Rio Tinto Group (RIO), ranking first and third by sales, this month said they’ll ration capital spending because of escalating costs and a slower-than-expected global economy.A mine worker watches as a haul truck is loaded by a digger with material from the pit at Rio Tinto Group's West Angelas iron ore mine in the Pilbara, Australia.  BHP Billiton Ltd. signage is mounted on a wall in the lobby of the company's headquarters in Melbourne, Australia. “It’s been ‘build’ for quite some time, and now it’s pushing much more in favor of potentially ‘buy’ because there are bargains out there,” Michael Elliott, Sydney-based global mining and metals leader at Ernst & Young LLP, said by phone.