Henry said the company’s Western Australia Iron Ore division continued its strong performance, delivering a second consecutive year of record production on the back of ongoing incremental improvements along its supply chain as we progress toward its medium-term goal of increasing production to greater than 305 million metric tons per year (mt/y).

“We achieved a strong performance across our copper business globally, underpinned by the highest production in four years at Escondida and another year of record production from Spence in Chile,” Henry said. “Successful integration at Copper South Australia has delivered additional production tons, and exceeded the annualized synergies planned at the time of the OZ Minerals acquisition.”

After a challenging year at BHP Mitsubishi Alliance coal operations, Henry said the company has plans in place to increase production to between 43 and 45 million mt/y in the next five years. “We continued to execute against our strategy, progressing growth options in the commodities the world needs to meet the demands of the energy transition and population growth,” Henry said. “This includes our Jansen potash mine in Canada, where construction of Stage 1 is now more than 50% complete and Stage 2 is underway. We will see first production from a major underground potash mine by the end of the decade.”

On July 11, BHP announced the temporary suspension of its Western Australia Nickel operations from October 2024 because of an oversupply in the global nickel market.

In related news, BHP is reportedly reducing short-term incentives by 20% for the 2023-24 fiscal year for all employees, according to the Australian Financial Review. According to sources quoted by AFR, the decision results from the company failing to meet internal performance targets, which includes cost and production goals, and a fatality at its Saraji coal mine in Queensland, Australia, during January.

This is not the first time BHP has done this. In 2019, the company reduced incentives by 20% due to several operational issues, including an iron ore train derailment in Western Australia in November 2018 and a fatality, which also occurred at the Saraji coal mine.