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BHP

Resilient long-term portfolio, Long-term growth

To bring people and resources together to build a better world
BHP’s purpose

Resilient long-term portfolio

BHP is the world’s largest copper producer and its lowest-cost major iron ore producer, and is building a potash mine in Canada. Its strategy is to manage the most resilient long-term portfolio of assets in highly attractive commodities, and to grow its value in four ways.

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Being excellent at operations

  • Safety firstEliminate fatalities, its highest priority, including through more autonomous haulage and stronger management of contractors’ safety.
  • Lowest costDeepen the BHP Operating System across its sites, and keep control of costs.

Year to 30 June 2026

  • BHP produced a record amount of iron ore in Western Australia, and was the lowest-cost major producer for a seventh year, more than US$10 a tonne below its nearest rival in the Pilbara.
  • Every major asset met its unit cost guidance, and copper earned a 70% EBITDA margin. A contractor colleague died at Peak Downs in July 2026.

Copper made more than half of BHP’s earnings for the first time

In fiscal 2026 higher copper prices took copper past half of BHP’s underlying EBITDA. Record iron ore production kept iron ore’s earnings steady.

Copper 55% of US$32.9bn

Copper 18.2Iron ore 14.5Coal 0.8

Underlying EBITDA by commodity for the years to 30 June, in US$ billion. A wagon is US$1 billion, rounded; coal is shown as one wagon. Group and unallocated costs, minus US$0.6 billion, are left out.

A tonne of rock for 9 kilograms of copper

Escondida, the world’s biggest copper mine, is working through lower-grade ore. Its concentrators were fed ore of 0.90% copper in fiscal 2026, and BHP expects about 0.70% in fiscal 2027, so copper output will fall until new projects lift it. That is why a new concentrator is at the centre of Escondida’s plans.

1 tonne of orethe copper in it9.0 kgat 0.90% copperEscondida output: 1,261kt

Concentrator feed grade at Escondida for the years to 30 June. Blocks are at true volume, taking the ore at 2.7 tonnes a cubic metre and copper at 8.96; the copper is what the ore contains, before losses in processing. Output is Escondida’s copper production, the outlook for fiscal 2027 a range.

  1. Name the ways you intend to grow.

    BHP’s strategy names four ways it adds value: running mines well, finding and building new ones, buying the right assets, and allocating capital. We recommend a strategy that says how growth will come, so each investment can be tested against one of them.

  2. Plan for the decline you can see coming.

    Escondida’s ore grade is falling, and BHP says so in its guidance: copper output is expected to drop in fiscal 2027 before new projects lift it. We recommend putting a known decline into the plan early, with the response beside it.

  3. Let the growth business pay for itself.

    BHP expects its copper business to fund its own growth into the mid-2030s. We recommend setting out which part of the business funds each investment, so growth does not quietly depend on another division’s cash.

Sources

  1. 1. BHP Group Limited (2026). Annual Report 2026, and financial results for the year ended 30 June 2026. Form 6-K, 18 August 2026. sec.gov

Headwater is not connected with BHP. BHP, Escondida, Jansen, and the BHP Operating System are trade marks of their owners. Updated 30 September 2026.

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