BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) said Friday that Ian Ashby has resigned as president of the miner's iron ore division, in a surprise reshuffle that will see the head of its energy coal unit promoted to run its biggest and most profitable business.
Ashby's pending departure on June 30 comes a week after the executive triggered a fall in the company's shares by saying demand from China was flattening.
He will leave BHP after more than 25 years, and be replaced by Jimmy Wilson, a 49-year-old South African that joined the company from Anglo American two decades ago. Wilson will report to Marcus Randolph, chief executive of BHP Ferrous & Coal.
Ashby's remarks on the sidelines of an industry conference March 20 were market sensitive, as China accounts for three-fifths of global imports of the key steelmaking material.
However, a BHP spokesman said his departure isn't linked to those comments and that it was the executive's own decision to step down.
"Everything he said at the briefing was entirely consistent with what we've been saying before on the subject," the spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires. "Ian was completely on message and we are supportive of what he was saying."
In subsequent emailed statement, Chief Executive Marius Kloppers thanked Ashby and said he "has done an outstanding job in leading the iron ore business".
The resignation comes after BHP last week announced aluminium head Jon Dudas was leaving the organization, without giving reasons. Chief Financial Officer Alex Vanselow left last month after announcing his intention to resign in November. He has been replaced as CFO by former diamond unit head Graham Kerr.
BHP plans to lift its production capacity in the Pilbara to 220 million tons a year by 2014 and 350 million tons by 2020 from about 170 million currently.
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