BHP Billiton to sell Pinto Valley mine BHP Billiton has agreed to sell its Pinto Valley copper mine in the US for $650m as part of an ongoing review by the company to slim down and cut costs. The all cash deal for Arizona-based Pinto and an associated railway company to Capstone Mining takes the value of BHP's disposals over the past 12 months to $5bn, according to the company. Operations at Pinto, which can produce about 60,000 tonnes of copper per year, have been suspended since the financial crisis in 2009. Peter Beaven, BHP's head of copper, said: "The sale of Pinto Valley is an excellent outcome for BHP Billiton shareholders." BHP added that it continued to review its assets and wanted to put more focus on its primary resource "basins," which include iron ore and coking coal in Australia, copper in Chile and oil and gas assets in the US. The sale comes as BHP has promised more cost-cutting after it forecast slowing economic growth in China. The world's largest mining companies have collectively slowed expansion plans and delayed projects in the past year, partly in response to weaker growth in China, amid pressure from shareholders to curtail spending and cut costs.