While admitting the OZ Minerals snub was disappointing, BHP chief executive officer Mike Henry said the major miner doesn’t have all of its copper eggs in the one basket.
Henry was speaking at a shareholder Q&A session, where he, BHP chief financial officer David Lamont and chief legal, governance and external officer Caroline Cox discussed a range of themes such as the miner’s coal strategy, potential nickel offtake agreements with electric vehicle manufacturers and BHP’s FY22 financial performance.
“BHP’s strategy is not dependent on mergers and acquisitions (M&A),” Henry said. “We’ve got this very clear focus on growth in copper but there’s a number of levers we’re pulling to unlock that growth, starting with getting more out of the big resources that we have.”
Henry said BHP is the world’s largest holder of copper resources and that there was an accelerated effort to figure out how the company can unlock more copper units “economically faster”.
“That’s going to be the lever that’s most within our control,” he said.
Henry mentioned BHP’s strategy around “early-stage entry” projects, where the company has increased its commercial strategy in “getting on the ground floor with big resources” that have been discovered but not yet developed.
“So we have all these levers that we’re able to pull before we get to mergers and acquisitions,” Henry said.
“Any M&A that we would pursue would only be pursued if it’s strategically a good fit for us and if there’s value to be captured for BHP shareholders.”
Henry shared the example of BHP’s pursuit of Canadian miner Noront Resources in 2021, where the company pulled away from the transaction because the price reached a point where it would no longer create value for its shareholders.
There was no suggestion of BHP tabling a renewed proposal for OZ Minerals, with Henry simply expressing his disappointment for the initial rejection.
“We approached them with a non-binding indicative offer that we thought was very compelling for all shareholders,” he added.
“And disappointingly, they chose not to engage with us.”