“We have a pipeline of copper projects under development in Chile and Australia,” said Mike Henry, CEO, BHP. “At Copper (South Australia) we have a strategy to deliver up to 650,000 mt/year (mt/y) of copper and for the first time we published an inferred mineral resource at Oak Dam (1,340 million mt at 0.66% copper and 0.33 g/mt gold).

“Studies on further potential expansions at WAIO to increase our output up to 330 million mt/y will be completed in CY25,” Henry said. “Construction of our Jansen potash project in Canada is ahead of the original schedule with first production now just over two years away. We have put our Western Australia Nickel operations into temporary suspension as a result of global oversupply of nickel, while continuing to support our people and communities impacted by this decision.

“The longer-term fundamentals that drive demand for our products remain compelling,” Henry said. “In the near term, we expect volatility in global commodity markets, with China experiencing an uneven recovery among its end-use sectors.” BHP plans to increase production at WAIO to more than 305 million mt/y over the medium term underpinned by the Port Debottlenecking Project 1 and Rail Technology Program.

In Brazil, Samarco is set to almost double production through the restart of a second concentrator in Q3 FY25 helping to support the local community through jobs, investment and taxes. The Renova Foundation continues to make strong progress on remediation activity and compensation.

After two consecutive years of 9% growth in copper production, BHP expects to deliver a further 4% increase in FY25 as it mines higher grade ore at Escondida and further lift productivity across all copper-producing assets.

“In the longer term, we have built a strong pipeline of attractive options to unlock our significant resource endowment and use latent capacity across our Escondida and Pampa Norte assets,” Henry said. We have narrowed roughly 20 studies across Chile to four main pathways across existing and new facilities with Final Investment Decisions planned in FY26 to FY29.