Twitter

BHP

BHP to supply greener Australian nickel to Tesla (Reuters – July 22, 2021)

https://www.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE July 22 (Reuters) – Global miner BHP Group (BHP.AX) said on Thursday it signed a nickel supply agreement with Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) and will work with the electric carmaker on lowering carbon emissions in the battery supply chain.

Tesla said in June it expects to spend more than $1 billion a year on battery raw materials from Australia given the country’s reliable mining industry and responsible production practices. read more

Western automakers are also seeking to diversify supply chains to lessen their dependence on China, in line with a U.S. policy to rely on allies to supply metals for electric vehicles.

Read more

Glencore to buy out Anglo American and BHP at coal mine – by Greg Roxburgh(Alliance News – June 28, 2021)

https://www.morningstar.co.uk/

(Alliance News) – Glencore PLC on Monday said it has agreed to buy out its Cerrejon coal mine joint venture partners, Anglo American PLC and BHP Group PLC, for USD588 million.

For London-based Anglo American, the sale will mark the wide-ranging miner’s exit from thermal coal. Anglo will be selling its 33% stake in the Colombian mine for USD294 million.

“Today’s agreement marks the last stage of our transition from thermal coal operations,” said Anglo American Chief Executive Mark Cutifani.

Read more

BHP is in talks with Nutrien on giant potash mine – by Thomas Biesheuvel (Bloomberg News – May 26, 2021)

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

BHP Group is in talks with Nutrien Ltd. about a potential partnership in its massive Canadian potash venture as the world’s biggest mining company moves closer to a final decision on the project.

The two companies are discussing multiple options, including Nutrien becoming the operator and selling the potash through its existing channels, or the Canadian company taking a stake in the Jansen mine, according to people familiar with the matter.

There is no guarantee the talks will lead to a deal, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are private.

Read more

Reformed iron ore miners tipped to pay $65b dividend – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – May 12, 2021)

https://www.afr.com/

Rio Tinto and BHP are tipped to pass 95 per cent of the iron ore boom back to shareholders through dividends, as Anglo American and Hong Kong’s Cheung Kong became the lastest multinationals to flirt with the idea of building a new iron ore province in Australia’s mid-west.

Iron ore prices have surged 20 per cent above the 2011 record over the past fortnight and are dragging Australia’s biggest exporter, Rio, into a net cash position just 13 years after it was crippled with debt on the back of the disastrous $US38 billion Alcan acquisition.

Shareholder returns from Rio, BHP and Fortescue will be far more generous than in 2011, when the three miners had big plans to spend on growth and were carrying much bigger debt loads.

Read more

Analyst confident massive Sask. [BHP] potash mine will be approved as deadline approaches – by David Shield (CBC News Saskatoon – April 28, 2021)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/

While a final decision has not been given on a proposed large potash mine project in Saskatchewan, one financial analyst says he is quite confident it will be approved in the next few months.

Originally announced in 2010, BHP’s Jansen mine was once hailed as the largest potash project in the world. The site is located about 140 kilometres east of Saskatoon.

Low potash prices meant the company never gave the mine final approval. While production and service shafts have been dug, and are almost fully completed, BHP has yet to produce any mineral from the site.

Read more

PDAC: Think big, exploration opportunity is huge, says BHP’s Laura Tyler – by Carl A. Williams (Northern Miner – March 11, 2021)

https://www.northernminer.com/

“From where I sit, the opportunity in front of us is huge,” BHP’s (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP) chief technical officer Laura Tyler told the PDAC’s virtual convention.

“I see great prosperity as we collaborate to discover the commodities of the future … faster, more efficiently, and more sustainably than ever before.”

Speaking from Adelaide in Australia, Tyler noted that the last year had been one of “challenge and opportunity for us all.”

Read more

BHP moves exploration team to Toronto to grow copper, nickel pipeline – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – March 11, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

BHP (ASX, LON, NYSE: BHP) is moving its exploration headquarters to Toronto, Canada’s most populous city, as it looks to growth its pipeline of “green metals” projects, particularly copper and nickel.

The move, announced by chief technical officer Laura Tyler, follows the world’s largest miner’s decision to partner with Midland Exploration (TSX-V: MD) in August last year to explore for nickel in northern Quebec.

Both copper and nickel have taken the centre stage in the “green revolution”, as they are vital metals needed for EVs, battery storage, charging stations and related grid infrastructure.

Read more

BHP moves nickel and copper HQ to Toronto as Canada emerges as new clean-tech mining hotspot – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – March 10, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

Both metals expected to see increased future demand due to electric vehicle industry growth

Australia’s BHP Group Ltd. is moving its exploration headquarters for nickel and copper — two metals expected to see increased future demand because of electric vehicle industry growth — to Toronto.

The company’s announcement Wednesday comes after a BHP subsidiary Rio Algom Ltd. struck a partnership in August with Canadian junior Midland Exploration Inc. to fund nickel exploration in northern Quebec.

The company has also been exploring for copper in Canada, on and off for years, Laura Tyler, BHP’s chief technical officer, told the Financial Post. But as climate change alters global commodity consumption patterns, she said nickel and copper demand are set to surge, leading the company to reevaluate where to put its people and resources.

Read more

BHP’s outlook, record dividend fuel supercycle talk – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – February 16, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

BHP (ASX, LON, NYSE: BHP) reinforced talks of a new supercycle on Tuesday by rewarding investors with a record $5.1 billion first-half dividend and forecasting a “very constructive” outlook for the commodities market fundamentals, as the global economy begins to rebound from covid-19.

The world’s largest miner said first-half profit jumped by 16%, hitting a seven-year high, as demand from top metals consumer China helped boosting iron ore prices by 70% in 2020, to a recent nine-year high of $176.90 a tonne.

That is well above the cost of roughly $10 to $20 a tonne most global miners spend in extracting the steel-making commodity, according to WSJ.com estimations.

Read more

Native Americans seek to stop Rio Tinto, BHP copper mine plan – by Nick Toscano (Sydney Morning Herald – January 13, 2021)

https://www.smh.com.au/

Australian mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP are facing fresh opposition from Native American groups over a plan to build an enormous copper mine in Arizona in the United States.

Apache Stronghold, a non-profit group, has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in Phoenix to stop the US government from transferring a 980-hectare parcel of land at Oak Flat, Arizona, to the mining giants’ joint venture, Resolution Copper.

Resolution, which is 55 per cent owned by Rio Tinto and 45 per cent owned by rival BHP, says its proposed copper mine has the potential to supply nearly 25 per cent of US copper demand for 40 years.

Read more

SolGold boss wants to end the brawl with BHP and Newcrest – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – January 6, 2021)

https://www.afr.com/

SolGold managing director Nicholas Mather wants to repair his fractured relationship with BHP and Newcrest Mining after an acrimonious year that culminated in a massive protest vote against his re-election to the board of the high-profile copper explorer.

BHP and Newcrest both own more than 13 per cent of SolGold and last year made public their respective concerns about Mr Mather’s approach to governance and funding of the Brisbane-based company, which has discovered several prospective copper and gold targets in Ecuador.

BHP and Newcrest were not the only SolGold shareholders with concerns about Mr Mather, with 44.7 per cent of the company’s register voting against his re-election to the SolGold board shortly before Christmas.

Read more

The 100-Day War: An oral history of BHP’s hostile takeover bid of PotashCorp – by Alex MacPherson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – November 13, 2020)

https://thestarphoenix.com/

Ten years after it happened, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix spoke with key players in what was at the time the biggest business story in the world.

It was ten years ago that BHP Billiton tried to buy Saskatchewan’s most iconic company. The Anglo-Australian mining giant’s hostile takeover bid for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. in the late summer and fall of 2010 was the biggest business story in the world at the time.

Tens of billions of dollars were at stake, not to mention a former Crown corporation at the heart of an industry that has long been considered the backbone of Saskatchewan’s identity, history and economy.

PotashCorp owned five of the nine potash mines then operating in the province, and employed thousands of people. It was also a global success, with operations around the world. And it was not for sale.

Read more

UK court blocks lawsuit against BHP over Brazil dam burst – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – November 9, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

The High Court of Manchester, northwestern England, blocked on Monday a £5 billion ($6.6bn) lawsuit against BHP over a devastating dam collapse at an iron ore mine in Brazil in 2015, which killed 19 people and became the worst environmental disaster in the country’s history.

The suit, filed last year by 235,000 Brazilian people and groups including indigenous tribes and the Catholic Church, claims the world’s no. 1 miner was “woefully negligent” in the run-up to the Samarco dam failure.

The claimants were seeking compensation for physical and psychological injury, property damage, moving costs, loss of earnings, loss of water supply and lost fishing income.

Read more

BHP takes copper pledge – by Esmaire Iannucci (MiningWeekly.com – November 2, 2020)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Major BHP has committed its copper operations in Chile and Australia to the Copper Mark voluntary programme, designed to hold the copper industry accountable to responsible practices in critical areas including environment, community, human rights and governance issues.

The Copper Mark is a credible assurance framework to demonstrate the copper industry’s responsible production practices and contribution to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals.

“We know that our long-term sustainability credentials are important to our customers and increasingly important to end consumers of copper products, such as buyers of electric vehicles and copper intensive consumer durables,” says BHP group sales and marketing officer Michiel Hovers.

Read more

BHP thinks big on nickel after Musk dangles supply contract – by Brad Thompson (Australian Financial Review – October 13, 2020)

https://www.afr.com/

BHP fanned speculation that it is closing in on an off-take deal with Elon Musk’s Tesla after moving to boost nickel production while reducing carbon emissions in Western Australia.

Eddy Haegel, the boss of BHP’s reborn Nickel West business, said it would continue to acquire prospective nickel tenements in WA after investing in new and existing mines and boosting processing capacity.

Nickel West has also started commissioning work at its delayed nickel sulphate plant at Kwinana, south of Perth, as it doubles up on the battery metal.

Read more