BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) Chief Executive Marius Kloppers Friday said he hoped for "manageable" anti-trust issues with European Union regulators for its proposed Pilbara iron ore joint venture with Rio Tinto Plc (RTP).

Kloppers said he expected the 50/50 joint venture, which would combine the companies' adjacent Pilbara mines and reap US$10 billion in synergies across rail and haulage, to be notifiable to the E.U.

However, anti-trust regulators would be deciding on a very different case compared with BHP's failed all-share takeover offer for Rio last year, when E.U. approval turned out to be a major stumbling block.

"Firstly, the scope is very different. It excludes mines such as Samarco or (the Rio project) Simandou. It is also truncated in completeness of business scope," Kloppers said during an analyst call.

Under the terms of the agreement, Rio and BHP will set up a separate marketing body that will share no pricing knowledge with its owners.

However, the alliance would still combine a massive production region in global seaborne iron ore business that is the key supplier to China and Japan.

During the 2007-08 financial year, Rio produced a total of 153 million metric tons of iron ore. Just over 142 million tons of that came from the Pilbara.

Likewise for BHP, 103 million tons came from Western Australia state, out of a total of 111 million tons.

Should a JV eventuate, global iron ore giant Vale S.A. (VALE) will probably still dominate seaborne trade, producing 302 million tons during calendar 2008.

-By Elisabeth Behrmann, Dow Jones Newswires;

61-2-8272-4689 elisabeth.behrmann@dowjones.com