Since first announcing in May that it will hold some $80 billion on supposed programmed projects, BHP Billiton Ltd. had been in a roll on supporting that claim as it declared cancellation after cancellation of high-ticket projects.

On Thursday, it confirmed it is cancelling plans of a supposed $3-billion coking coal mine in Queensland. The deferment was first announced in August when the global miner confirmed it is scraping the $30-billion expansion of the Olympic Dam mega project.

All project cancellations point to efforts to prioritise and minimise spending cuts.

The global miner pointed out the Red Hill coking coal mine, located north of Moranbah, was actually just a "study option."

"We have at any one time a myriad of study options, and we don't make public when something is stopped or started given that there are so many," the AAP quoted an unidentified BHP spokesman as saying.

On Monday, BHP extracted the Red Hill proposal from assessment, the federal Department of Environment said.

"The company is focused on the projects currently under execution," a BHP spokesman told The Australian. "In response to the challenging external environment, we have made some changes to the growth project arrangements."

The Queensland coal mine was estimated to churn out 14 million tonnes of coal per year.

Some 200 jobs during construction and 1,500 afterwards were eventually lost with the project cancellation.

In August, BHP had said it will not be approving major projects in the year to June 2013.

Apart from the Olympic Dam copper and gold mine in South Australia, BHP had likewise postponed plans on its Port Hedland iron ore harbour expansion in Western Australia.