The Australian dollar notes will pay interest at 3.75% and mature in October 2017.

The proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.

The miner’s finance arm notified fixed-income investors of the senior unsecured, medium-term notes offer early yesterday.

ANZ and Commonwealth Bank of Australia were the joint lead managers.

Analyst John Meyer of Fairfax in London said the Australian offering was logical.

“The timing of an Australian dollar issue makes sense – while the rate is higher than the US dollar rates achieved, any depreciation of the Australian dollar would make this a more attractive funding option,” he wrote in a morning note.

The offer comes less than a month after BHP priced $A5.2 billion of European and UK bonds to be used for working capital.

The miner issued over $7 billion of bonds in the first half of the year.

BHP Billiton Limited is rated A+/stable/A-1 by Standard & Poor’s and A1/stable/P-1 by Moody’s.

BHP shares closed 0.6% up to $33.47 yesterday.