BHP

• 1. Introduction

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  BHP is the largest mining company in the world by market capitalisation, and the second largest public company in Australia. In 2025 it ranked 125th on the Forbes Global 2000. Its beginnings include a borrowed suit.

  On the 20th of June 1885, a first prospectus came off the press at Silverton, near Broken Hill in western New South Wales. William Jamieson, the general manager, had to carry it to Adelaide to start the share float. W. R. Wilson, a dominating figure among the backers, had to lend him a new suit for the trip.

  That shaky errand launched a company founded in August 1885 as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company. Today it digs and sells iron ore, copper and coal. How did a silver and lead mine in western New South Wales become a global mining group with a Dutch-born partner? Why has it chased some of the biggest takeovers in mining history, then walked away from several of them? And what has it left behind in the rivers, towns and communities near its operations?

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• 2. The Syndicate of Seven

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  On the 5th of November 1883, a boundary rider named Charles Rasp pegged out a 40 acre claim. He worked for the surrounding Mount Gipps Station. Two contractors, David James and James Poole, joined him. The hill had been named by Captain Charles Sturt, and it had stirred prospectors' interest, but nothing of note had turned up until that day.

  Rasp and about half a dozen backers formed the Broken Hill Company and staked out the entire Hill. One backer was George McCulloch, the station manager and a young cousin of Victorian Premier Sir James McCulloch. Months of fruitless digging followed, and costs mounted. Three of the original seven, now remembered as the Syndicate of Seven, sold their shares. The original group had included George Urquhart and G. A. M. Lind, who were gone by the time success arrived.

  By then there were nine shareholders. They were Rasp, McCulloch, Philip Charly, James, Poole, Bowes Kelly, Wilson and Jamieson. Jamieson had bought shares from several of the founders. The company was incorporated on the 13th of August 1885, three days after the Broken Hill group floated on the 10th. Its business was a silver and lead mine.

  The first consignment of ore weighed 48 tons, 5 cwt and 3 gr. It was smelted at the Intercolonial Smelting and Refining Company's works at Spotswood, a Melbourne suburb in Victoria. The result was 35,605 ounces of silver, put on show at the City of Melbourne Bank in Collins Street. Sceptics claimed the promoters had simply brought in silver from elsewhere to pump up the share price.

  A director named John Darling Jr. joined the board in 1892. He would chair it from 1907 to 1914, the final stretch before the company turned to an entirely different material.

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• 3. Steel, Oil and Far Mines

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  In 1915, the New South Wales Minister for Public Works, Arthur Hill Griffith, strongly urged the company to make steel. It set up operations based mainly at the Newcastle Steelworks. The reason for leaving Broken Hill ore behind was technical. The lower-lying sulphide ores were hard to recover profitably.

  Two other pieces fell into place. Iron Knob and Iron Monarch were found near the western shore of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia. Meanwhile, company metallurgists A. D. Carmichael and Leslie Bradford refined the froth flotation technique for separating zinc sulphides from the waste rock around them. The metal was then converted to oxides, in what became known as the Carmichael-Bradford process. That let the company economically extract valuable metals from tailings heaps up to 40 feet high at the mine site.

  In 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy targeted the BHP steelworks while shelling Newcastle. The attack was largely unsuccessful. The Newcastle operations closed in 1999, and a 70-ton commemorative sculpture called The Muster Point was installed on Industrial Drive in the suburb of Mayfield. The long products side of the steel business was spun off in 2000 to form OneSteel. The flat steel products business followed in July 2002 as BHP Steel, which became BlueScope in 2003.

  Petroleum exploration began in the 1950s. It became a growing focus after oil and natural gas were found in Bass Strait in the 1960s.

  The company also diversified into mining projects overseas. It owns 57.5% of the giant Escondida copper mine in Chile. In 1996 it contracted for the Ekati Diamond Mine in northern Canada, and mining began in 1998. In 2013, with production declining, BHP sold its 80% stake in Ekati to Dominion Diamond Corporation.

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• 4. Billiton and the Merger

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  On the 29th of September 1860, shareholders approved the articles of association of Billiton Maatschappij at a meeting in the Groot Keizershof hotel in The Hague, Netherlands. Two months later, the company acquired mineral rights to the islands of Belitung, formerly spelled Billiton, and Bangka. They lie in the Netherlands Indies archipelago off the eastern coast of Sumatra.

  Billiton's first ventures were tin and lead smelting in the Netherlands. In the 1940s it added bauxite mining in Indonesia and Suriname. Shell acquired the company in 1970. Billiton then opened a tin smelting and refining plant in Phuket, Thailand, called Thaisarco, short for Thailand Smelting and Refining Company, Limited.

  In 1994, South Africa's Gencor bought Billiton's mining division, excluding the downstream metal division. Billiton was divested from Gencor in 1997 and became a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index that same year. It was amalgamated with Gold Fields in 1998.

  In 1998, BHP hired the American Paul Anderson to restructure the company. His four-year project ended with the June 2001 merger with London-based Billiton, creating BHP Billiton.

  The merged group was a dual-listed company. BHP Billiton Limited was based in Australia, with the global headquarters in Melbourne. BHP Billiton plc was based in London. The two had separate listings and separate shareholder bodies, yet ran as one operation with identical boards and a single management structure. Main offices stood in Australia, the US, Canada, the UK, Chile, Malaysia and Singapore.

  The top job changed hands often. Brian Gilbertson of Billiton became chief executive in July 2002, but resigned after just six months, citing irreconcilable differences with the board. Chip Goodyear took over in early 2003 and retired on the 30th of September 2007. Marius Kloppers followed him, and Andrew Mackenzie took the role in 2013. Mike Henry, then head of Australian mining, succeeded Mackenzie on the 1st of January 2020.

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• 5. Bids and Blocks

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  In March 2005, BHP Billiton announced a US$7.3 billion agreed bid for WMC Resources. WMC owned the Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium mine in South Australia. It also held nickel operations in Western Australia and Queensland, and a Queensland fertiliser plant. The bid reached 90 per cent acceptance on the 17th of June 2005. Compulsory acquisition of the remaining 10 per cent brought full ownership, announced on the 2nd of August 2005.

  On the 8th of November 2007, the company said it wanted to buy its rival Rio Tinto in an all-share deal. The offer was 3.4 BHP Billiton shares for each Rio Tinto share. Rio Tinto's board rejected it for "significantly undervaluing" the company. A formal hostile bid on the same terms followed on the 6th of February 2008. On the 25th of November 2008, BHP Billiton dropped the A$66 billion takeover. It said the 2008 financial crisis had raised the risks to shareholder value to "an unacceptable level".

  The crisis also hit the nickel business. On the 21st of January 2009, BHP Billiton said the Ravensthorpe Nickel Mine in Western Australia would cease operations. That ended ore shipments to the Yabulu nickel plant in Queensland, which was later sold to the Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer. The Pinto Valley mine in the United States also closed. Closures and general scaling back accounted for 6,000 layoffs.

  Ravensthorpe had cost A$2.4 billion to build. It was shut after less than a year of production, costing BHP US$3.6 billion in write-downs. On the 9th of December 2009, with the nickel market saturated, BHP Billiton sold it to First Quantum Minerals for US$340 million.

  In January 2010, BHP Billiton bought Athabasca Potash for US$320 million. The Economist reported that by 2020 the company could supply roughly 15 per cent of world potash demand. In August 2010, it launched a hostile bid worth US$40 billion for PotashCorp, after a first bid made on the 17th of August was rejected as too low. The move marked a push outside hard commodities, away from resources with heavy exposure to carbon price risk, such as coal, petroleum and iron ore.

  Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall opposed the bid. On the 3rd of November, Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement announced a preliminary rejection under the Investment Canada Act. BHP got 30 days to refine its deal. It withdrew its offer on the 14th of November 2010. Investors around the world generally found the Canadian decision surprising.

  BHP Billiton's next big purchases were in American shale gas.

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• 6. Shale and Retrenchment

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  On the 22nd of February 2011, BHP Billiton announced a US$4.75 billion cash payment to Chesapeake Energy for its Fayetteville shale assets in north central Arkansas. They included 487,000 acres of mineral rights leases and 420 miles of pipeline. The wells were producing about 415 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. The company planned to spend $800 million to $1 billion a year for 10 years to triple production.

  On the 14th of July 2011, it announced it would acquire Petrohawk Energy of the United States for about $12.1 billion in cash. The offer was US$38.75 per share.

  The reversal came fast. On the 22nd of August 2012, the company delayed its US$20 billion Olympic Dam copper mine expansion to study less capital-intensive options. It also deferred its dual harbour strategy at West Australian Iron Ore, slowed its potash growth option in Canada, and froze approval of any major new expansion projects. Days later it agreed to sell the Yeelirrie Uranium Project to Canada's Cameco for around $430 million, as part of a broader step back from expansion in Australia.

  The financial trend tells the same story. Revenue peaked at US$71.73 billion in 2011, according to the company's trend figures. It sank to US$28.56 billion in 2016.

  On the 19th of August 2014, BHP Billiton announced it would create an independent metals and mining company from a selection of its aluminium, coal, manganese, nickel and silver assets. The new entity was named South32. It was demerged with listings on the Australian Securities Exchange, the JSE and the London Stock Exchange.

  In 2015, BHP Billiton agreed to pay a US$25 million fine to the US Securities and Exchange Commission over a hospitality programme at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. It had invited 176 government and state-owned-enterprise officials to attend on an all-expenses-paid package. The SEC found that officials from at least four countries were invited where BHP Billiton had interests that the officials could influence. Those countries were Congo, Guinea, the Philippines and Burundi. The company said it had compliance processes in place.

  By late 2016 the company signalled a petroleum expansion. In February 2017, it announced a $2.2 billion investment in the new BP Mad Dog oil field platform in the Gulf of Mexico. That same year, at the Escondida mine in Chile, the world's biggest copper mine, it tried to get workers to accept a 4-year pay freeze. The proposal also cut the end-of-conflict bonus offer by 66% and demanded more flexible shifts. A major strike followed. The company declared force majeure on two shipments, and copper prices rose 4%.

  In August 2017, BHP announced it would sell its US shale oil and gas business. In July 2018 it agreed to sell the shale assets to BP for $10.5 billion. On the 29th of September 2018, it completed the sale of its Fayetteville assets to a wholly owned subsidiary of Merit Energy Company.

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• 7. A Smaller Big Australian

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  In April 2017, the activist hedge fund manager Elliott Advisors made a proposal to BHP Billiton. Elliott held about 4.1 per cent of the shares in London-listed BHP Billiton plc, worth $3.81 billion. It wanted the company to spin off its American petroleum assets and restructure significantly, including scrapping the dual Sydney-London listing. Australia's government warned it would block a move of the stock listing to the United Kingdom. Treasurer Scott Morrison called such a move contrary to the national interest, and said it would breach government orders requiring an Australian Securities Exchange listing. BHP Billiton dismissed the plan, saying its costs and risks outweighed any benefit.

  In May 2017, with much of the former Billiton portfolio disposed of, the company began rebranding as BHP, first in Australia and then worldwide. The slogan "The Big Australian" gave way to "Think Big", with an advertising campaign rolling out in mid May. The two parent companies became BHP Group Limited and BHP Group plc on the 19th of November 2018.

  In August 2021, BHP announced plans to leave oil and gas by merging its hydrocarbon business with Woodside Energy, Australia's largest independent gas producer. It also said it would delist from the London Stock Exchange and consolidate on the Australian Securities Exchange. That happened in January 2022.

  In April 2023, BHP took over Oz Minerals in a $9.6 billion deal. In April 2024 it offered £31 billion for Anglo American. Anglo American rejected the offer as "highly unattractive", and rejected a revised offer in May 2024. In July 2024, BHP and Lundin Mining agreed to jointly acquire 100% of Filo Corp. They also agreed to form a 50/50 joint venture to hold the Filo del Sol and Josemaria projects.

  Today the company reports five primary operational units: coal, copper, iron ore, potash and nickel. Its Australian mines sit in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. Several Queensland coal mines are run as a 50% share of the BHP Mitsubishi Alliance. The BHP Foundation, a philanthropic organisation funded by BHP, was backing 38 projects in 65 countries. In Australia, its programs focus on Indigenous self-determination and on young people, and Reconciliation Australia is one of its partners.

  In December 2025, BHP agreed to sell a stake in the inland power network serving its Western Australian iron-ore business to BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners for US$2 billion. The money was meant to fund more copper production and a branching out into potash. In March 2026, BHP named Brendon Craig as its next chief executive, to take over from Mike Henry on the 1st of July 2026.

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• 8. Damage Downstream

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  In 1999, BHP itself reported that 90 million tons of mine waste had been discharged into the Ok Tedi River each year for more than ten years. The Ok Tedi environmental disaster harmed the Ok Tedi and Fly Rivers in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea between about 1984 and 2013. Downstream villages, agriculture and fisheries were destroyed. Waste spread along 1,000 km of the rivers and across 100 square kilometres. BHP's chief executive, Paul Anderson, said the mine was "not compatible with our environmental values and the company should never have become involved." In the 1990s the lower Fly communities, including the Yonggom people, sued and received US$28.6 million in an out-of-court settlement. Experts predict the toxic contamination will take 300 years to clean up.

  On the 5th of November 2015, a tailings dam near Mariana in south-eastern Brazil failed catastrophically. It belonged to Samarco, a joint venture in which BHP and Vale each hold 50%. The mudflow devastated the town of Bento Rodrigues, killing 19 people and injuring more than 50. It also threatened life along the Rio Doce and the Atlantic Ocean near its mouth. An investigation found construction and design flaws. It remains the worst environmental disaster in the history of Minas Gerais and, by the source's account, in Brazilian mining.

  In June 2018, Samarco, Vale and BHP signed an agreement under which the Brazilian government dropped a $7 billion civil lawsuit. The companies gained two years to address a larger US$55 billion suit brought by federal prosecutors. In August 2018, BHP settled a US class action for US$50 million without admitting liability. It also faced a shareholder class action in Australia over losses after its disclosures on dam safety.

  In November 2018, the law firm SPG Law, now Pogust Goodhead, filed a US$5 billion group action in the High Court of Justice at Liverpool under Brazilian law. It acted for 235,000 Brazilian individuals and organisations, including municipal governments, utility companies, indigenous tribes and the Catholic Church. BHP denied the claim in its entirety. In August 2025, BHP and Vale offered US$1.4 billion to settle. On the 14th of November 2025, High Court judge Finola O'Farrell ruled BHP strictly liable, citing negligence, technical warnings and missing studies that let the dam rise beyond safe levels. BHP said it intends to appeal.

  The company is listed among 90 fossil fuel extraction and marketing companies responsible for two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions since the industrial age began. Its cumulative emissions to 2010 were estimated at 7,606 million tonnes. That is 0.52% of global industrial emissions between 1751 and 2010, and ranks it as the 19th-largest corporate polluter. BHP says 10% comes from its direct operations and 90% from products it sells. It has voluntarily reported its direct emissions since 1996, and was criticised in 2013 for lobbying against carbon pricing in Australia. Total emissions fell from 38,300 kilotonnes in the twelve months to June 2015 to 15,800 in June 2020. In June 2024, BHP said it was on track for a 30% cut by 2030 from 2020 levels. It did not rule out carbon offsets within a $4 billion plan.

  From 2019 to 2021, BHP recorded six cases of sexual assault and 73 cases of sexual harassment. A survey of 425 workers by The Western Mine Workers' Alliance covered the fly-in fly-out mining industry. Two-thirds of female respondents had experienced verbal sexual harassment. In the previous 12 months, 36% of women and 10% of men had experienced some form of harassment. BHP terminated or permanently removed forty eight workers from its sites. On the 16th of November 2007, bad weather caused a BHP Billiton helicopter to crash in Angola, killing all five on board. Among them was David Hopgood, the company's Angola chief operating officer. The crash happened about 80 km from the Alto Cuilo diamond exploration camp, and BHP Billiton suspended operations in the country.

  In the Atacama Desert, BHP was accused of drawing water from aquifers above its granted limit. The water table dropped significantly, making land-based livelihoods harder, and many community members relocated to cities. In January 2021, the Supreme Court of Chile validated objections from local indigenous groups over water use and wetland impacts. In July the same court ordered BHP to restart the Cerro Colorado permit application from scratch. The mine closed in 2023 when its water extraction permit expired and was not renewed.

  In 2022, Atacameño people sued Minera Escondida, Albemarle and Minera Zaldívar over damage to the Monturaqui-Negrillar-Tilopozo Aquifer. Escondida argued that groundwater moves so slowly that its effects had not yet shown downstream, and pointed to the other two companies. The case ended in December 2024 with a conciliation agreement requiring compensation for the Comunidad de Peine and for damage to the Tilopozo meadows and the La Punta and La Brava lakes. BHP's subsidiary Pampa Norte plans to start works in 2028, aiming to reopen Cerro Colorado around 2030.

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