[ferro-alloys.com]Almost two decades after merging with British group Billiton to create a global mining titan, Australia’s biggest company is officially axing the Billiton brand.

BHP Billiton is seeking to formalise its public makeover and will ask shareholders to vote on dropping Billiton from its name.

Shareholders at the mining giant’s upcoming annual general meetings will vote to rename BHP’s Australian and London listings as BHP Group.

BHP launched a high-profile advertising campaign early last year, highlighting its Australian heritage and calling on the nation to “think big”.

Under the $18 million campaign — the first directed at the public in 30 years — the miner re-embraced the “Big Australian” moniker made famous by its highly successful TV advertisements fronted by actor Bill Hunter in the 1980s.

It also did away with the miner’s three-blob logo and “resourcing the future” tag line.

The Melbourne-based group has since used BHP for branding purposes but did not officially change its name. That will now happen if shareholders approve the new name when they meet in London on October 17 and Adelaide on November 8.

Originally Broken Hill Proprietary, BHP began mining silver and lead more than 130 years ago.

It became BHP Billiton in 2001 when it merged, trading as BHP Billiton Ltd in Australia and BHP Billiton PLC in the UK.

The rebranding effort was launched last year as BHP fended off an aggressive push by a US activist investor to shift its primary stockmarket listing to London.

It was also wrangling with the Australian Taxation Office over a disputed $1 billion bill linked to its marketing hub in Singapore.

The formal push to change the company’s name was revealed as BHP released its annual meeting notice and annual report yesterday.

The report shows chief executive Andrew Mackenzie picked up $US8.1 million ($11.2 million) in pay and perks for the year to June, or about $30,700 a week. His remuneration package rose from $US7.1 million the previous year.

• [Editor:王可]