BHP and Japan have a long-term relationship, with the two partners on a number of projects, whether it be existing mining operations or sustainability initiatives.
The BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) is a 50:50 joint venture between BHP and Japanese company Mitsubishi Corporation, which owns coal assets in the Bowen Basin region of Queensland.
BHP had also been partnered with Mitsui & Co. as part of the BHP Mitsui Coal (BMC) coal joint venture in New South Wales.
The major miner completed its divestment of its interest in the metallurgical coal assets to Stanmore Resources in May.
However, BHP and Mitsui & Co. are still partnered in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, where the latter has investments in four iron ore projects operated by BHP.
More recently, BHP has been working with Japanese companies Prime Planet Energy and Solutions (PPES) and Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC) to create a ‘Green Electric Vehicle’ ecosystem.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the three was first announced in October 2021 and was initially centred around the supply of nickel sulphate from BHP’s Nickel West operations to PPES.
BHP is also working with its existing Japanese partners to decarbonise its shared value chains.
“Take steel for example,” BHP chief executive officer Mike Henry said at the recent Australia-Japan Joint Business Conference which was themed ‘Designing a New Future’.
“To decarbonise, the world needs almost twice as much steel – but steelmaking is very emissions-intensive.
“The world needs to boost steel production while at the same time driving down carbon emissions. We are working with others to support the effort to solve that conundrum.”
Henry used the example of BHP’s partnership with JFE Steel, which is developing technologies and pathways that can reduce emissions by 30 per cent during the steelmaking process.
BHP’s relationship with Japan is strong but the partnership is only strengthening.
“The world must address head on the threat posed by climate change,” Henry said. “That’s going to require minerals. It is essential that those minerals are produced in a sustainable way, and that their associated value chains are stable, reliable and also progressing towards being carbon free.
“This need has seen us deepen our levels of collaboration with Japanese partners to levels not seen for many decades. And we continue to explore opportunities to do more together, faster.”