BHP Billiton announced that the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have granted early termination of the Hart Scott Rodino waiting period for BHP Billiton’s proposed acquisition of Rio Tinto and the Antitrust Division of the DoJ has concluded its review without further action.

Mr Alberto Calderon CCO of BHP Billiton said that "We are very pleased that we have received notice of early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act waiting period and completion of the Department of Justice merger review.”

Termination of the applicable HSR waiting period satisfies part of the US merger control pre condition to BHP Billiton’s proposed offer for Rio Tinto. The offer remains subject to the pre conditions as disclosed in Appendix I of the announcement on February 6th 2008, including that portion of the US merger control pre condition referring to certain actions that may be brought by the DoJ or FTC.