Good morning. An early rise this morning and coming through the traffic was hectic, but we're here. It is a real celebration that you're holding it on our beautiful country known as Melbourne, but our name NUM. [Foreign language] Wamanjika Marambi Bitburung Nunda Buraptan Apa Willum. As a descendant of the First Peoples, of the Yallikatwillum, of the Boonwurrung of the Greater Kulin Nation, I welcome you all here today and extend our hand in friendship to the friends and staff of BHP. Today we acknowledge the traditional lands of the Eastern Kulin and the lands of our ancestors. The Boonwurrung, who were a part of a much larger nation known as the Kulin, this nation consisted of five major language groups. To our neighbors, the Woiwurrung, the Dunwurrung, the Dja Dja Wurrung, and the Wadawurrung. Wurrung means your tongue, how you speak of country.
It translates anyone entering our country should speak the language as a sign of respect. It is now over 200 years since Europeans first arrived in this area we now call Melbourne. The sacred river which flows past us is now called the Yarra, was known by the First Peoples of Melbourne as the Birrung. Translates the River of Mist. The Birrung was not only a source of food and transport, it represented the lifeblood of the Kulin Nation as it flowed out into our great bay known as NUM. Today we stand together on this special country and share respect for each other's cultures and heritage. In recognizing and celebrating our shared history, we all have something to gain. In traditional society of the Kulin people, we were committed to the maintenance of our society by valuing the importance of learning, showing respect, celebrating life, and respecting sacred ground.
This importance of learning, or what we word Yalange, is that deep knowledge, deep time. It was that transmission of knowledge and understanding that ensured our culture survived. This commitment to learning has been a part of every generation since time began, and it's one of the reasons why we are still strong today. Showing respect, a dillybrook. In our traditions, visitors are always welcome, but they're required to show respect to the Wurrungi Bik, the laws of the country. This is the same way we show respect to each other's cultures or religious or spiritual beliefs today. We are here to celebrate your AGM. It's about celebrating life, the celebration of arrival of new children, the coming of our six seasons. The visiting of the neighboring clans was very much an important part of our traditional life.
Today, Melbourne not only represents one of the most important places for the celebration of contemporary Indigenous arts and culture, it also prides itself on the cultures of our multicultural and global societies. Respecting sacred ground, or what we call Pabbanata, Mother Earth, we should all acknowledge the sacred ground on which we stand. Melbourne today is a host to many people from many different nations, and we still call upon them to continue to respect sacred ground by understanding the history and the heritage of the First Peoples of the Kulin Nation. What we celebrate today through this gathering, BHP's AGM, is about the importance of Melbourne's culture. It is about that generosity. It still remains a very important part of your culture. Today it is my hope that we can all take pride in our shared history and celebrate the strength of our great nations.
According to our traditions, our lands will always be protected by our creator, Bunjil, who travels as an eagle, and Bawan, who protects our waterways, travels as a crow. Bunjil taught us to always welcome guests, but he required us to ask all guests to make a number of commitments or dabnbaws, not to harm our big biks, not to harm, that's our lands, not to harm our wāne, our waterways, and particularly not harm Bunjil's children. This commitment is made through an exchange of a small bow dipped in the water of the land. Once again, [Foreign language] wamanjika Marambi Bikburung Nunda Buraptan Apa Willum. Welcome to our beautiful home, the lands of the two great bays. Ngungujun, I am in your presence and you are in mine.
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Ross McEwan and I'm your Chair. Hello and welcome to BHP's 2025 annual general meeting. Let me first thank N'Arwee't Professor Caroline Briggs for that wonderful, warm Welcome to Country. I would like to acknowledge that these are the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri people who have a deep connection to the lands and waterways of Melbourne. We extend our respect to the Wurundjeri Elders past and present. Welcome to all of our shareholders here today. We are delighted to be together in person in Melbourne today. We're very proud to be headquartered in Melbourne and to have a long connection with this great city. Our last Annual General Meeting held in Melbourne was in 2017, so it's great to be back.
Today I'm joined on stage by my fellow directors, including your Chief Executive, Mike Henry, and our Group General Counsel and Company Secretary, Stefanie Wilkinson. We also have our external auditors from Ernst & Young and our Chief Financial Officer, Vandita Pant, in attendance, as well as other members of our executive team. It is an honor and a privilege to chair my first BHP Group Limited AGM. Your Board and I are excited about the future of this great company. I also want to acknowledge the contribution of my predecessor, Ken MacKenzie, who led the Board as Chair for eight years and retired on the 31st of March 2025. I thank Ken for his outstanding service to the Board and BHP during his tenure. Ken leaves a lasting positive legacy at BHP.
I can confirm that there is a quorum present, and as the time is shortly after 10:00 A.M. in Melbourne, we can now start the meeting. The notice of this Annual General Meeting was made available to shareholders on the 16th of September 2025, and I will take it as read. The poll is now open for all of the items to be considered at today's meeting, and you may now start casting your votes. I will also give you a warning before the end of the meeting so that you have the opportunity to cast your votes before voting closes. Our Group General Counsel and Company Secretary, Stefanie Wilkinson, will outline the procedures for voting at today's AGM a little bit later in the meeting.
Ladies and gentlemen, as I've said, it is a pleasure to be here in Melbourne, the home of BHP's global headquarters and my adopted hometown for the last six years. Today's AGM is an important opportunity for our shareholders to ask questions about BHP's business and our performance. I met with a number of retail shareholders in London a few weeks ago, and we had a great discussion about BHP's strategy, commodity focus, operational performance, and the growth plans of the business. I hope we can discuss similar topics today in a very open way. It is an enormous honor to address you as BHP's Chair for the first time in this, our 140th year. It's amazing to think that it all began with a rough outcrop of rock amid a huge expanse of flat, dry land in the outback of Australia.
It was discovered by a small group of farmhands and pastoralists armed with little more than a geology guidebook and a hunch that there just might be some value under their feet. In fact, what they pegged out was a remarkable resource of lead, zinc, and silver, among the greatest in the world. Realizing the potential of this metal ore wasn't easy. It took vision, perseverance, and skill. It took problem solvers, and at their core, that's what our founding members were: problem solvers willing to tackle a new frontier with the conviction that they would find a way through and a better path forward. In preparing today, I thought I might just draw on some inspiration from those pioneers. Where better to start than with BHP's then Chair, Arthur Blackwood, who shared at our very first shareholder meeting held in this city on December 15, 1885. It was short.
You'd love this one. Just 829 words. It revealed a company with bold ambitions and extraordinary grit, a company chasing opportunities of scale hard to fathom, and a company prepared to move fast and make it happen. Investing in two 30-ton smelters from Nevada in the U.S. to process ore at Broken Hill, sourcing 1,000 tons of the world's best coking coal from Durham County in the U.K. to fuel them, and working to source the mine's water supply in the arid Australian outback. Through all of this, you can sense the relentless drive to do better and to be better. It's the spirit I think Blackwood would recognize as alive and well at BHP today. I know because I've seen it on my visits to our assets and offices around the world. It all starts with our culture and our collective commitment to keeping each other safe.
It's a high-performance culture, and a big part of that is the effort applied to making the workplace safer every day. That effort is consistent across our global operations, and I've been delighted to see safety is taken so seriously at BHP and is supported by everyone from the Board to our mining operations. For 140 years, BHP has been deeply woven into the fabric of Australia. From that proud Australian heritage, a truly global company has been born. In its lifetime, BHP has operated from the heights of the Atacama Desert to the ultra deep of the Gulf of Mexico, in the heat of the Pilbara and soon in the stunning cold of the Canadian prairies. The enduring support of shareholders like all of you here joining us today has been central to that success story.
We know you depend on us to grow and safeguard your investment, and in many cases, your retirement funds. We know also that you have other choices to invest in other companies than ours. We take that responsibility seriously. Just as you as shareholders rightly consider what is the best use of your money and where it will generate the most value for you, so must we. We have a strong and embedded capital allocation framework to guide us. It helps maintain a healthy balance of financial strength, shareholder returns, and investment in the long-term growth of the business. This is a company that has refined its strategy, and it knows its purpose. It has a mix of assets and commodities focused on today and on the future, and it operates these assets exceptionally well. That is a great position to be in and a great position to grow from.
The Board and I support BHP's ambitions for high-quality growth that drives value. With the opportunities in front of us, our options are many. We are a global allocator of capital. Each option must compete with every dollar we invest. That drives sensible investment decisions and ensures every project is focused on generating returns. The decisions we make can define the company for decades. We make big calls when we have to, like we have for 140 years. Making those big calls means identifying the conditions for success, what to produce, where to explore and develop, and increasingly the impact of government policy. This is a competitive sector. As a company, we work hard to get better every day. We invest in our people, our technology, and our assets to improve our competitive position. It's the way you win in tough, contested global markets.
The same principle is also true for nations. Increasingly, nations around the world are competing for global resource investment. This is about economic benefits, and it's also about national security and resilient supply chains. Like other investors, we're also keen to see industry and government pulling together in the same direction. Nations must also be on the front foot, unlocking approvals to accelerate significant projects, delivering abundant, affordable, reliable energy while moving towards net zero, accelerating automation and artificial intelligence, building and supporting a globally competitive workforce, and of course, stable fiscal settings to underpin productivity and to reward investment. The nations that get this mix right will benefit the most. Being globally competitive on these measures is clearly critical to attract investment for companies like BHP. It's also critical for nations to raise living standards and for our future generations.
Part of BHP's competitive advantage is how we work with others to create social value. It drives better business decisions and better business outcomes. We are a big company, which means an outsized ability to create mutual benefit. That can take many forms. Increasing certainty for local suppliers who invest in and expand their business, and in turn strengthening our supply chains. Partnering with communities to protect the natural environments we work in, or being positive contributors in towns our workforce and their families live in. Creating social value opens doors for BHP. It helps us to attract the best talent. It helps make us a partner of choice for suppliers, payers, and governments. It helps to build community trust that is fundamental to the success of the resource projects.
Ultimately, this approach allows BHP to stay true to its purpose to bring people and resources together to build a better world. The entire company is pulling in the same direction on everything from safety to social value to operational excellence and to the outcomes as our shareholder returns. We know that dividends are important, particularly to our hundreds of thousands of retail shareholders. Our policy is to pay our shareholders at least 50% of our underlying attributable profit at every financial reporting period. This year, we determined a 60% payout ratio for our final dividend for the full year, making that $5.6 billion paid in dividends. This is a mark of our confidence in the strength of our business and a determination to deliver value to you, our shareholders. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a company in strong health and with an extremely bright future.
It is led by a strong, high-performing CEO and executive team. Its competitive advantage, its culture, strategy, assets, and its strong pipeline for growth should give you confidence in your investment with us. I thank you for being part of BHP's history and also its future. It is now my great pleasure to hand over to your CEO, Mike Henry. Thank you.
Thank you, Ross, and good morning, everyone. It's indeed a pleasure to be here today in Melbourne. Financial year 2025 was a good one for BHP. We delivered strong operational and financial performance, and we continued to build our growth pipeline for the future. Most importantly, we delivered these results safely. Our key safety indicators moved in the right direction. Over the past five years, we've achieved a 63% reduction in high potential injury frequency. These are incidents where a team member has been injured, even if only in a minor way, but which could potentially have caused a fatality. The investments that we've made in the fatality elimination program, our commitment to field leadership, and the improvements our teams drive every day through the BHP operating system have all contributed to these results. During the financial year, we also achieved gender balance within our global employee base.
This is an ambition that we first set out in 2016, and we did so at the time because our experience has shown us that a more inclusive, collaborative culture contributes to a safer, more productive, and more reliable BHP. Indeed, we've seen BHP's operational performance improve markedly since 2016. Ultimately, safety and productivity drive shareholder value. Earlier, Ross reflected on our 140-year history and how it all began. As I reflect on this, I'm reminded of the many reinventions BHP has undergone since 1885 and how that continues today as we execute our clear and simple strategy.
As we look to the coming decades, we see a growing and more urbanized population to serve, a shift in the world's energy mix to sources that are less carbon-intensive but more copper-intensive, increasing demand for more sustainable food production, which will require more fertilizers like potash, and growth in artificial intelligence, which is data, energy, and copper-hungry. The commodities that we've chosen to pursue are all highly attractive in that future. We own world-class assets that are large, long-life, low-cost, and with options to grow. We operate them excellently to generate maximum possible value from the capital we have invested on behalf of shareholders. We bring a differentiated approach to creating social value with those around us. Our operational and financial results continue to prove the value of this strategy.
We had record production this year at Western Australia Iron Ore, which has been the lowest-cost major iron ore producer in the world for a sixth straight year. We had record overall copper production, which we've grown now by 28% over the past three years. That growth is the largest absolute copper growth over that time frame of any major miner globally. Our operational performance underpinned another strong financial year. We returned 20.6% on capital employed, with a very healthy underlying margin of 53% on our earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization, or EBITDA. All told, we contributed almost $47 billion to the economies we operate in through wages, taxes, royalties, community contributions, and payments to suppliers and shareholders. About $10 billion of that was in taxes and royalties, which helped to fund schools, hospitals, and roads. That's an effective tax rate of about 45%.
This year's $5.6 billion in dividends means that over the past 10 years, BHP has returned over $100 billion to shareholders. Our plans seek to continue those healthy shareholder returns. We have strong growth options across our existing operations and in new places. We've also reshaped our portfolio to include a much greater exposure to copper. This year, 45% of our EBITDA came from copper, more than double where it was five years ago. While we're already the largest producer of copper in the world, we're pursuing more growth. We have options to grow at our world-class copper basins in South Australia and Chile. We also have our Vicuña joint venture, which holds some exceptional copper deposits in Argentina, and we own 45% of Resolution Copper in Arizona, a project which could supply 25% of the copper needs of the United States.
Of course, we're also entering a new commodity in potash, and construction continues at our Jansen potash project in Canada. For stage one, we've announced an updated cost estimate and have said that our forecast for first production will revert to the original schedule of mid-2027. Jansen is going to be another great BHP business, and it will deliver value to shareholders for a very long time. With the suite of potash and copper growth options at our disposal, we can deliberately and strategically choose how and where we grow to create value for shareholders. As Ross mentioned, those projects compete against each other for capital. We're in uncertain times, but amid all that uncertainty, there are growing opportunities. Leaders around the world increasingly understand mining's value when it comes to economic development and its importance to national security.
More countries are sharpening their policy settings to attract mining capital and projects. This is good news for BHP because we have attractive options in many jurisdictions. For example, in South America, the Argentinian government has established what's known as the RIGI scheme, which incentivizes large investments. In North America, both the United States and Canada governments have established initiatives to speed up permitting of nation-building projects that underpin productivity and prosperity. There are also some encouraging signs in the discussions around productivity and investment attraction here in Australia as well. In particular, we welcome the strong signals from the Australian government in respect to proposed reforms to environmental laws and permitting. We also appreciate the support we see for mining investment from the Western Australian and South Australian governments. The pace of reform is moving even faster in other countries.
Australia can't afford to be flat-footed in the race for global investment. Every aspect of Australia's competitiveness, from labor productivity to the time and cost of construction to royalties and taxes, must be examined against competing investment destinations. Energy policy needs to be a focus, with electricity costs in Australia two or more times higher than Canada, Indonesia, and other countries, and 50%- 100% higher than the U.S. A clear-eyed view of how Australia wants to compete in this shifting global landscape is the starting point for being in the contest at all. For BHP, our task is clear. We want to bring to market more of the commodities the world needs. We want to do so safely, efficiently, and responsibly. In doing so, we will continue to create value for you, our shareholders. We have truly world-class assets, and we're building more.
We have a global workforce whose character and capability delivers exceptional results time and again. This allows us to deliver industry-leading margins, high returns, and funds for our future growth. That's a unique combination that underpins our strength, consistency, and resilience through the cycle. BHP stands apart as the world's leading diversified mining company. Our scale, operational excellence, and disciplined capital allocation, our track record of responsible stewardship, our pipeline of world-class copper and potash growth projects are a unique mix. I'm confident that BHP is positioned to deliver value and growth for you in the years ahead, and that the next 140 years in the company's history can be just as successful as the first. Thank you for your continued support.
Thank you, Mike. I would now like to ask our Group General Counsel and Group Company Secretary, Stefanie Wilkinson, to outline the procedures for voting at today's AGM.
Thank you, Ross, and hello, everyone. I will now run through the procedural aspects of today's meeting. Voting on all items today will occur by a poll. On a poll, each shareholder attending or present by proxy, attorney, or corporate representative has one vote for every shareholder. If you are eligible to vote, you can use your own device to vote by scanning the QR code on your voting card. The resolutions will then be displayed on your screen. To cast your vote, simply select for, against, or abstain underneath each resolution. A tick will appear to confirm receipt of your vote. To change your vote, select click here to change your vote and select a different option. You may change your vote at any stage until the poll closes. If you experience any difficulties, Computershare representatives are on hand at the back of the room to provide assistance.
Alternatively, please complete the voting instructions on the back of your voting card and place it in one of the available voting boxes. The Chair has opened the poll, and you can vote at any time. You do not need to wait for the resolution to be discussed before casting your vote. Results of the voting will be announced to the stock exchanges shortly after the conclusion of today's meeting and will also be published on our website. Tim Hewen from Computershare has been appointed Returning Officer for the meeting and will scrutinize the vote. Turning to the items of business in the notice of meeting, all items one to 11 in the notice are endorsed by your Board, and the Board recommends that you vote in favor of them.
We will ensure that there is a reasonable opportunity for shareholders as a whole to ask questions or make comments at today's meeting. However, we may not be able to answer every question or address every comment received. If you would like to ask a question today, please register to ask the question at the registration point outside the main room. Please provide your name together with the nature of your question to the attendant. When it is time to ask your question, an attendant will let you know and come to the microphone. To ensure that shareholders as a whole have a reasonable opportunity to be heard at today's meeting, we ask that you respect the rights of others in the room and limit your questions to two questions and your comments to no more than one or two minutes.
The question registration point will remain open throughout the meeting if you wish to register to ask a question. Thank you, Ross.
Thank you, Stefanie. Item one of today's business is to consider the financial statements and reports from the directors and auditor for the year ended 30 June 2025. Shareholders are not required to vote on this item, but you may ask questions or make comments. If your question relates to director reelections or executive remuneration, you'll have the opportunity to ask your questions when we come to those items. I'll now take questions and comments on item one from the floor. We will do our best to get to as many of the questions and comments as possible. As Stefanie said earlier, to ensure that shareholders as a whole have a reasonable opportunity to be heard at today's meeting, please limit the number of questions to two and comments to no more than one or two minutes. I ask shareholders and guests to be courteous and respectful to each other.
We'll move to the microphone to take the first question. Microphone two.
Chair, I would like to introduce Duncan Seddon from ASA.
Thank you, Mr. Seddon.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for meeting with us prior. As you know, we have a large contingency of retail shareholders who we represent, who are very interested in dividends and ongoing dividends. The question is, there's been some speculation of recent times over the introduction of a turnover tax to help the government come out of the doo-doo which they've gotten themselves into. I would like to ask specifically, what would this impact of a turnover tax be on BHP and the mining industry in general? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Seddon. I think you're referring to the Australian Productivity Commission proposal to introduce a net cash flow tax that has been put forward as the tax you're describing. I won't comment on the proposal specifically because I think a number of options were put forward, but that was certainly one of them. What's important in tax policy is the balance between the returns to the government and the need for incentives to actually invest in this country. Mining is a capital-intensive sector, projects that need upfront investments and decades to actually get payback on them. Investment typically flows to projects where returns are most competitive. Tax policy settings are internationally competitive. They have to be internationally competitive, and they have to be stable. They're critical to attract global investment capital into Australia, including our investment. I'm proud of the contribution that we make on an economic basis.
Mike talked about those in some of his entry. Over the last decade, nearly $100 billion globally in taxes, royalties, and other payments. All I'd say is we just need to remain competitive to attract the investment into Australia. At the moment, even on the current corporate tax rate, we're probably one of the most expensive corporate tax rates in the developed countries. Thank you for your question, Mr. Seddon. Microphone two.
Chair, I would like to reintroduce Duncan Seddon from ASA.
Thank you again, Mr. Seddon.
Thank you. We've seen in recent years the Chinese, for want of a better phrase, essentially destroy our nickel division. We were very disappointed to read in the annual report the very poor returns that we're getting in our coal division, particularly the BMA operations. This was put down to excessive usury style of resources tax. Would you comment on what conversations you've been having with the Queensland government and the coal industry at large in Queensland to actually get some relief from this tax? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Seddon. I'll do the first introductory piece on that and then pass over to Mike on the specific Queensland royalties. As I said, tax positions actually need to be competitive globally for an organization such as ourselves. In BMA, we do have some difficulties, as has been written up in the newspaper. I think Mike at the half-year results showed the position there. Last year, just so shareholders are aware of this, last year we paid in tax and royalties on BMA, which is the steelmaking coal business in Queensland, $1.6 billion. You shareholders made $200 million. I think the actual balance between what we pay and what we make isn't working on behalf of that business. It's a great business. Steelmaking coal is an essential commodity that is needed worldwide to actually build infrastructure. It is really important to get the tax settings right.
We've been pretty clear that on that basis, we can't invest in that business. The capital, your capital, needs to go somewhere else. That is the overlying position or underlying position we have on BMA, the Queensland business. I might, Mike, hand over to you on any other comments you'd like to make on it.
Thank you, Chair. Coming back to Mr. Seddon's question about what engagement is happening, that's happening both directly and at an industry level with the Queensland government. It has been since this change was first made. The ask that we've put forward, and I know many of our peers in the sector agree with, is a very simple one, and that is that Queensland bring its taxes and royalties in line with our competitor countries around the world. I think that's pretty sensible. As the Chair indicated, we're currently paying eight times more in royalties than we're generating in profit. We only had a 1% return on capital employed this past year, which I know none of you would find acceptable. We're paying $0.67 on every dollar in taxes and royalties, and that's simply not sustainable. Government inaction is having real impacts on regional jobs and towns.
Without change, inevitably, there's going to be more difficult decisions that need to be made.
Thank you, Mr. Seddon. Microphone two.
Chair, I would like to reintroduce Duncan Seddon from ASA.
Thank you, Mr. Seddon. You've just broken the rule of two, haven't you? That's okay. Thank you for your question.
I've got a few more.
I thought you might. Thank you.
Yeah, essentially, this is to do with the iron ore business and ask you to comment as much as you can on what's going on in the Pilbara with regard to BHP iron ore fines and the sale of these into China, and essentially indicated embargo, which is widely reported in the press. As a kind of a bit of a follow-up, really, for our information, the company has essentially all its accounts in U.S. dollars. May we ask, please, how much of our product is actually sold in another currency, particularly Chinese currency?
It's about 10%. I'm happy to take that.
Sub 10%.
Thank you, Mr. Seddon. You're quite right. There's very limited I can say on this. We are in commercial negotiations, and we won't be commenting on any of the specifics. That's exactly as you would expect. We did release our Q1 operational review just this last Tuesday, and our quarter one iron ore sales were broadly in line with the prior year. BHP sells and ships iron ore products via different commercial distribution channels, and we'll continue to optimize those distribution channels to support product placement. The only other point I'd make on this is we've had relationships in China now for decades. We have a pretty good working relationship, but this is a commercial negotiation that's going on as it does every year. On your comments regarding currencies other than U.S., it'd probably be less than 10% that's done in a non-U.S. currency, and I'll just confirm that, Mike.
That's correct, Chair. It's important to be aware of the fact that one of the things that drives sales in different currencies are our China portside iron ore sales. It's quite sensible that when we as BHP have imported iron ore into China and we're selling it to our steel mills customer from portside in China, those sales would be denominated in RMB. It's a pretty standard industry practice. Both ourselves and our competitors do this. That's a big portion of the numbers that the Chair mentioned.
Thank you, Mr. Seddon. Microphone number one.
Chair, I would like to introduce [John Possel].
Yes, good morning all. I'm just a shareholder, but of recent times, we've been watching our Prime Minister and Mr. Trump get together and do a lot of talking, particularly about a lot of money, and particularly something that should be interesting, I suppose, to BHP. I wondered if someone could perhaps comment on the possibilities for BHP, either positively or negatively, for us over this scenario, or is it too early? Basically, people like myself are interested in the possible, I guess, investments in the company further. I'd just like to get some comments from someone about what's happening and perhaps the implication with China.
Thank you very much, Mr. [Possel]. We are actually seeing an increasing focus on critical minerals all around the world, the supply and the supply chains associated with those. This shows a growing understanding of the critical minerals' role in supporting national security in the big energy transition and also the big technology developments that are going on around the world. There is a clear recognition of the significant economic opportunity that investment and resource projects can bring. I think it's a little bit early to actually see the outcomes of what we see as a good meeting between the Prime Minister of Australia and the President of the United States, but I think it was a very good meeting to start those conversations. It's only a few of those. There are not many resources that we would play in that critical end.
We are very large players, as you know, in copper, iron ore, steelmaking coal, coal, and soon potash. Those are the resources. Of course, copper is becoming one of those quite critical resources. Mike, there may be some, you've been recently in the United States and seen with Mr. Trump. Are there any further things on the relationship between Australia and the U.S.?
Perhaps, Chair, the only other thing I would say is that Australia is quite well positioned to support the U.S. as the U.S. tries to de-risk its critical mineral supply chains. Obviously, Australia being a resource-rich country and there being 110 years of the U.S.-Australia alliance to underpin the sorts of discussions that we saw take place this week between the Prime Minister and the U.S. President. Having had the opportunity alongside my peer at Rio Tinto for an Oval Office meeting with the President of the United States and the Secretary of the Interior, I was impressed on just how fierce the focus is in the U.S. on getting more metals and minerals facilities or mines and processing facilities up and going in the U.S.
Obviously, as I mentioned earlier in my speech, we have an opportunity with the Resolution Copper project in Arizona, very large copper deposit potential to develop that in the coming years, and that could supply 25% of the U.S.'s copper demand for a very long time. We do have a presence there. We'd love to be able to grow that presence over time. Coming back to Mr. Possel's question about the specific agreement, I think we should see it as symbolically significant in that it goes to just how seriously this issue is being taken and the position that Australia can play in supporting the U.S.'s needs.
Thank you. Microphone number two.
Chair, I would like to introduce Graham Thompson.
Mr. Thompson.
Good morning, Chair. My question is a relatively simple one. I have raised this before. You talk, both you and Mike talked about operational performance. My question is about the operational performance of the date of payment of the dividend. Now, you'll all appreciate that the date of payment to the dividend is the date at which the start of the next day you get the money, the cash in your pocket, or at least in your bank. If you look at performance in recent years, the performance of the payment of the dividend jumps around quite a lot. Some companies, I would say very good companies, manage to pay the dividend within a day or two of each other, notwithstanding leap years or whatever. We were told when the assets were exed out of BHP to create what became South 32, it was all about simplification.
It doesn't seem to have helped the payment of the date of the dividend. Let me just give you a few examples. The dividend payment in 2024 was the 3rd of October. The dividend this year was the 25th of September, more than a week difference. If you go back many years, you get back to 2003 when the dividend was paid on the 3rd of July. I think the reason that it's now paid in September relates, I think, at that time to the dual listing in London and the different financial years of Australia and the U.K.. We can't go back to that best performance. The best performance in recent years has been the 21st of September. Please, Chair, can you really try harder? You get the operational part of the business performing and meeting challenges. How about the financial and governance part of the company? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson, and I hear the chuckles in the room, so thank you very much. It's obviously a topic there that retirees are very important to. The actual date of the dividend actually relates back to when we actually do the results of the organization. As the date of the results change, so will the date of the dividend. That's why you'll get a bit of a variation, I suspect. You're quite right, when we came off the dual listing, the date of results would have changed as well, and we went down to the single listing. Look, all I can say is we'll do our best. Right now, about that, I think it's about a 60-day difference is where we're at. It does relate to when we actually announce our results.
Continuous improvement.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Thompson. Microphone number one.
Chair, I would like to introduce Heather Winter.
Ms. Winter, thank you for joining us.
Yes, hello. As I walked into this meeting today, I was met by protesters dressed in koala bear suits, and they gave me a chocolate caramel bear. Mr. Ross McEwan, thank you for your outline of BHP's values as established by Blackwood since 1885 to promote a culture of connection, inclusivity, and social value. Mutual benefits, partnering with communities to protect the environment, working with Aboriginal organizations in partnership, which I welcome, building community trust to bring people and resources together and building social value, and the culture of not only keeping humans safe, but animal and plant life too. It's important that, especially in climate change today, that's built into your structure. You know that in defending the environment, we need to listen to, in that inclusivity, include those discussions.
Can you please identify the area which BHP are targeting that concerns the habitat of koala bears and what environmental sustainability report, government environmental reform? Can BHP, you said that you pledge a percentage of $10 billion towards schools, which I welcome. Can there be a pledge towards making sure the koala habitat is protected in future expansion of coal in Queensland? As BHP decision makers and shareholders, we don't want to be remembered for extinctions. Just one other concern about AI. We do know that data centers, I think America are planning to put data centers here in Australia and that's going to consume a lot of energy. I am quite concerned about that because Australian energy prices are going up and up and up. With these trades of fueling data centers, are we going to be the second-rate citizens in our own country paying extraordinary amounts for energy?
Not only that, seeing our own environment, which means a lot to us in terms of koala bears, an icon of this country, watching them being extinguished. Thank you very much.
No, thank you, Ms. Winters, for your question. There's a lot in that question. We'll try and take it in several steps. Thank you very much, and thank you for your care and concern about the environment because it's vitally important. The framework, the social framework that the organization set up back in 2022, took into consideration a lot of the points that you were making there. Decarbonization, the environment we operate in, which includes the likes of the habitat we have, our indigenous partnerships, the workforce, our communities, and just our supply chain. A lot of what you talk about was picked up in our social framework. Our decision making when it comes to, through Mike's team and then to the board, actually has the social framework built into it as well.
I can tell you that that is taken seriously at the very highest level and also around how we make our decisions. Last year, we set out our position around how we help with the decarbonization. We set a target that the shareholders last year agreed to, which was a 30% reduction in our carbon footprint from the year 2020, which is the base year, to 2030. That's a big commitment to take 30% out of our operation, particularly when it's growing. We're absolutely committed to it, and to date, we are on target to hit that. We're on target to get to those levels. I think that's really important around what you're talking about there, but also around how we regenerate the land that we've operated on as well and the plans that we have as we leave parts of a mine and move forward.
What do we leave behind? We leave exactly what you're talking around, the vegetation, so that we do encourage the animal community into those areas and leave a better place for the communities that are left. A lot of what you're talking about is there. Let's just move on to, and we're committed to that with our plan. That plan, we are absolutely on track for. The piece around artificial intelligence, it is a growing topic. You couldn't go a newspaper article today or a newspaper today without seeing something talk about artificial intelligence. You are right, the energy supply required in that is getting larger and larger, and these data centers are being built. Therefore, the energy supply must also keep up with that. The government's certainly got a policy of renewables, and so do we.
You see a lot of our targets to get to our 2030 emission targets is around much more renewable energy sources because that's one of the big areas of carbon footprint for us. A lot of our move to that 2030 target will take in consideration our own or working with partners, power sources that look after our needs, but also sometimes the communities we operate in. You're quite right, it is around the transition. That transition needs to be very deliberate. Otherwise, prices of energy, as you've seen, and we as a business have seen, continue to rise. That's the dilemma. It's how do you actually build new sources at the same time as taking out the old sources to reduce the carbon footprint. That's a delicate balance and one we're working on as an organization within our own plans. Great question.
Thank you very much for sharing your view. Thank you. Microphone two.
Chair, I would like to introduce Don Walker.
Mr. Walker.
Mr. Marco Cortez in the U.K., what stage is it up to now, please? Out of the 700,000 people affected by the dam bust, how many have been fully compensated? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Walker. If I may, for the full audience, just give everybody an update on Samarco if that's okay, because I think that's a very relevant question to all and has been a big topic for us for the last 10 years. Before I get to your specific question, I just might say a few words about the issue in general, if that's okay. First off, let's be very clear. The Samarco dam failure was a tragedy, and we're deeply sorry for the impacts it has caused. I visited the Mariana region this year with my fellow director, Michelle Hinchcliffe, and we visited the affected communities. We spent time with the community members, visited homes, and we did hear their stories firsthand. I saw firsthand the progress that's been made on the ground in Brazil across three key areas. First off is environmental remediation.
The second is community resettlement, and the third one is the point you're raising, which is around compensation. The environmental remediation has been substantially complete for some time now. The impacted riverbanks and the floodplains of the Doce River have been revegetated. New water treatment and sewage treatment facilities have been improved. Water quality in the river basin is beyond the historic quality levels. There's also been significant progress in the community resettlement. 98%—so it comes to one of your questions—98% of the resettlement cases are finalized, and over 370 families have the keys to their brand new homes, and they're lovely homes. The third area is compensation. As at the 31st of August, approximately $5.6 billion has been paid in compensation and financial aid since the 2015 dam failure, and it covers approximately 537,000 people. It's a big number.
Outside of Brazil, you have seen news about the group action in the U.K., the case you referred to, Mr. Walker, and it's been brought by a specialist class action law firm. The U.K. action overlaps with existing compensation processes in Brazil, and we will continue to defend against those claims. The U.K. action is currently ongoing in the U.K. courts, and it would be just totally inappropriate for me to comment any further. Can I just finish where I started? The Samarco dam failure was a tragedy, and we're deeply sorry for the impacts it has caused. We cannot change the tragedy in the event of the 5th of November 2015. As we get to the 10th anniversary of this tragedy, we can continue to strive to do what's right by the people, the community, and the environments who have been deeply affected by it.
537,000 people have received compensation, two villages built with 98% of the occupants in their homes, with their little communities operating again, including schools and including the community facilities. It's still a little way to go, but we're certainly doing our bit. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, $537,000, and that'll be it. That's the final number?
It's the number that have gone through the process at this stage, and it's been encapsulating all of those in the communities. We worked with the Brazilian government on the program to make sure that we were capturing all of those involved. There will still be some that will need to be looked after, but we also do have a provision for that as well in the accounts.
Mr. Chairman, I asked how, what stage is the court case up to? Has it got a long way to go, or is it going to be finished soon?
As I said, it's in the courts right now, and it's in the judge's hands, so I'd rather not say anything more on that case. Thank you very much.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you. Microphone one.
Chair, I would like to introduce Crystal Charles.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to speak. I just have two questions in regards to BHP's strategic decision-making in an evolving landscape. It is my understanding that BHP's Climate Transition Action Plan places a strong emphasis on carbon capture and storage as a key decarbonization strategy for steelmaking. However, there are still no commercial-grade carbon capture projects operating for blast furnaces, and pilot projects capture only a small share of emissions. Independent analyses indicate that BHP's climate scenario relies on far greater carbon capture deployment than credible global pathways like the IEA's net zero scenario. Now, my question is that given that carbon capture remains unproven and costly in 2025 still, could the board clarify why it continues to prioritize carbon capture over more mature and scalable low-carbon steel technologies such as electric smelting and hydrogen-based reduction?
Thank you very much for your question. I will actually hand this one over to our CEO, who's well-versed on this absolute topic.
Thank you for the question. I would phrase it slightly differently in that obviously BHP is no longer a steelmaker. What we need to consider is how can we go about working with our steelmaking customers to support their efforts around decarbonization. One of the things that they've consistently fed back to us is that for them, CCUS is one of the potential avenues that they're pursuing, but it's not limited to that. We're working with steelmakers on the use of hydrogen in the blast furnace. We're working specifically on electric smelter furnace, which you mentioned. In fact, BHP has been a key sponsor of this technology, and we're investing with others in a pilot plant in Western Australia specifically to demonstrate the veracity of that technology for hopeful uptake then by steel mills. Through our ventures arm, we've also invested in breakthrough technologies predominantly in the U.S.
We are engaged on the full gamut of potential decarbonization approaches for the steel industry that will play out over different time frames. I do believe that there will be a transition that occurs over time in steel. The question is how quickly does that occur and what do steel mills do in the intervening period? Our view is that steel mills will remain committed to decarbonization, but in order to do so in the near to medium term, they will achieve that through more efficient blast furnace operations, and that will require higher quality inputs. That's why we've chosen to retain only the best of the best quality steelmaking coals, even as we've chosen to step out of the others. We're well engaged with steelmakers around the world on a range of steelmaking decarbonization technologies, including providing both funding for that and technical input.
Do you think the carbon capture and storage will play a significant role in the long term?
Caveating it only with BHP not being a steelmaker in its own right, the feedback that we get from our steelmaking customers is that they see CCUS as playing a role longer term. I don't think anybody out there is saying that it's the only solution to decarbonization of the steel sector. It's likely to be a myriad of different technologies that get deployed, with CCUS being but one of them. There will be transition of blast furnace into ESF or Green DRI and so on, and then hopefully over a longer term horizon, some of these true breakthrough technologies that people are working on out there.
Understood. Onto my second question, BHP often highlights the expansion of India's steel industry as a driver of growing demand for Australian metallurgical coal. However, despite India's steel production rising by nearly 40% since 2021, BHP's exports of Australian metallurgical coal to India have dropped by over a third during the same period. Given the urgent need to decarbonize the steel value chain, as we have said, will the board commit to a managed reduction of metallurgical coal production that aligns with this declining demand and supports BHP's goal of achieving net zero by 2050?
I'm happy to answer this one.
Thank you for your second question. Maybe if I just start with some comments around that. We've clearly set out our path till 2030 of reducing our carbon footprint by 30%. That takes into consideration all of our existing operations, the growth paths for them, and any new operations that we bring into play. Within that framework, we want to grow our business, but it is within the framework of reducing our carbon footprint by that 30%. Steelmaking coal in our mind is certainly a commodity that is required by the world, and it is a big part of our operation. It is our BMA operation up in Queensland. We'd obviously like to make it much more profitable, but we'd also see that as part of the growth path of our business.
On the other side of coal, which is energy coal, we've been very clear that we will be closing our business in New South Wales by June 2030. We also want to be quite clear that that is for us on economic grounds, that that mining process will not be as economic for us as we'd like it to be. Therefore, we will look to close that. Our steelmaking business is one that we believe is required internationally around the world, and countries like India and its development are certainly needing that steelmaking coal of great quality. We'd look to keep that business and trying to grow it as well.
Understood. It's just the met coal for use around the world seems to be on the decline. I'm just wondering if BHP has any intent on decreasing its output for metallurgical coal.
Mike, if you want to make a comment on that one.
Mr. Charles, I think perhaps the numbers that you're referring to are being impacted by the fact that we've had the size of our coal portfolio over the period in question. If you think about what we've done in Queensland, we've sold off the BMC Two Mines. We've sold off the Blackwater Mine over that same time frame, and the size of the pie for the coal that we're selling is reduced quite markedly. At the same time, our coal sales in India from our remaining portfolio on proportionate terms remains very strong. What we see around the world right now is the blast furnace steelmaking production still makes up about 70% of global steel production, and that requires coking coal in all instances.
Our view is and our hope is that the steelmakers will look to reduce the emissions footprint from those blast furnaces through various technologies, including the ones that we're investing in, but also through the use of better inputs, which requires higher quality coking coal, which is the coal that we have. Now, on the part of your question around growth plans in the coking coal division, we've been quite clear for a range of reasons, including the financial numbers that the Chair spoke of earlier.
are not looking to deploy any gross capital into our Queensland coal business for the foreseeable future.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much. Microphone 2.
Chair, I would like to introduce Sina Khatami.
Mr. Khatami.
Thank you. My question is about coal growth plans and specifically, BHP has recently suspended operation at its Saraji South mines in Queensland, referring to and cut 750 jobs across Queensland, and cited the Queensland government's royalty scheme as the main reason, and further citing the scheme as the reason for pausing investment in coal growth in Queensland. However, it appears that the main underlying reasons would be actually rising labor cost and low coal prices and declining market for met coal export, as discussed with the previous question, and not the royalty scheme. My question would be, how does BHP expect to be able to rein in production costs under these changed market conditions? Specifically, what coal price would we need to see before, you know, the company will invest in new production plans?
Thank you. Thank you for the question. I go back to comments we made earlier just about the economics of that business, and both the CEO and I gave you the understanding of what we were paying in royalties and tax, which is the big numbers. Yes, there have been labor cost increases, and of course, prices have come off a bit, but the key driver of that business and its lack of returns for shareholders is around the taxing and royalties. You just cannot run a business at 67% tax position and expect to make money on that for our shareholders. At 1% return, that's not getting investment, and that's the fundamental reason behind that. Yes, there have been increases in labor cost. There have been a drop-off in the price, but the key driver of the reason we're making that call on that business is around the taxation.
That is the main driver for it.
Do you think tax and royalty schemes should be combined together? Because from memory, the royalty scheme is something about maybe 10%- 15% of the total cost, and it actually has a bracket regime. It seems to me that it's a bit different from the tax part of that, but I might be wrong.
Great question. Actually, in this, I think, magnificent little booklet to our team who put it together, it's fantastic. On the economic contribution, it actually pulls apart exactly the numbers you're talking about. Probably worth having a look in there. At the end of the day, tax and royalties do come together as tax payments to a state or federal government, and those numbers, as we've said in Queensland, are just too high, and therefore just don't expect investment in those areas. Other areas of Australia we're investing very heavily in, but that one's of a real difficulty for us. A really good little booklet, worthwhile having a look at the numbers for all shareholders. I think it is in quite plain English, and the numbers stand out, so it's worth having a look at. Thank you very much for your question. Appreciate it.
That's the second question as well. OK, I also have a second question, and I was wondering, given that many Queensland coal mines recently have been closed, including BHP's, appear to fit as a zombie mine pattern, as some journalists may call it, which is essentially an asset that becomes uneconomic outside a price spike and only restarted opportunistically. Given the volatility of the coal market and increasing risk of demand decline, as discussed, do you think BHP, how does BHP ensure that investment in coal mines don't undermine its broader commitment for net zero and decarbonization as you go further?
Look, I'll pick it up in the total position for the business around our decarbonization position, which is the 30% reduction from 2020 to 2030. It takes both our expansion in business, which uses more carbon, and our reduction in businesses and the efforts that our team make to actually reduce carbon in existing businesses as well. On the New South Wales coal, it's an economic decision we've made to actually close that business down. That one will, of course, have a positive impact on our carbon position. There are other parts of the business where we're expanding and growing, which will have a negative. The outcome for us is to get a 30% reduction across our portfolio, and that's the way we measure it.
A lot of those actions our teams are having to take on finding new renewable energy sources, working very hard on how do we reduce the diesel utilization over time, much more difficult than we anticipated. There'll be lots of other actions that the team will take. It's the net of all of those that we think about. You're talking about one asset, but we're looking at them across the board.
Fair enough. For your capital allocation, would you consider the risk of such coals as a stranded asset risk?
It depends if that asset, like the New South Wales coal business, we are closing it. That decision has been made. On other assets where we may put them into care and maintenance, they may be opened up at a later stage if the pricing changes or we can find different ways of using those resources and making them economic. It just depends upon the asset. The energy coal in New South Wales, we've made that determination.
Thank you.
Thank you. Microphone 2. It's a popular microphone, that one.
Chair, I would like to introduce Simon Livesey.
Mr. Livesey.
Livesey.
Livesey.
Yeah. I've got an envelope here that says BHP contains important information regarding the 25th annual general meeting. I would like plain envelopes. I've got a neighbor that happens to just look at your mail, and she said to me the other day, "How's your BHP shares going?" It's not funny. She's got a problem. I was at the Melbourne University for a talk yesterday, and Ed Hobie, the Department of AI, has said there's a chip being made that uses 1% of the power that Google is using on their AI centers or whatever it is. I don't think AI is going to be such a big problem in the future. That's it.
Thank you.
Except that I'm not really happy with coming here and going through all that bloody security that you've got.
Never mind, Mr. Livesey. Unfortunately, it's the world we live in.
I don't think other people have to do it. I don't know why you do. You must think you're special or something.
I think you're special more than I, but thank you very much. Not too sure about those envelopes or what we can do about your neighbor. Maybe the delivery of it online would probably be another option for you, but we'll have a look at whether we should or shouldn't put it out without the branding on it. I quite like the branding. It's a good bit of advertising for us. On the technology, look, there will be new technologies that will make a difference. I'm not aware of the little chip that makes a difference, but you can guarantee over the next decade there will be some massive shifts in technology that will answer some of the big problems. There is the opportunity for BHP. We have the commodities that actually are required by these great big technology companies for the big transformations of the world.
Also, we haven't talked at all today about potash. That is another big opportunity for shareholders when that business gets up and going in 2027, 2028, because the world is not getting any bigger land-wise. You can be Elon Musk and go to Mars, but the world's not getting any bigger. The population is, and therefore the productivity of that land, it's going to need potash. I think we're in the right sectors, and I think those technologies will be requiring us to be actually supplying to them as well. Thank you very much. Have we got any further questions? If there are no further questions, we'll move on to the next item. The next eight items relate to the re-election of your non-executive directors. At BHP, we undertake annual director elections for all of our directors each year, and accordingly, all non-executive directors submit themselves for re-election.
Are there any questions on director re-elections in the items 2 through to number 9, please? OK. If there are no further questions on these items, the proxy shown on the screen are the proxy results for items number 2 to number 9. We will now move to item 10 and 11. These will be the last opportunity for questions. If you'd like to ask a question, please register to ask the question at the registration point outside the main room. During the 2025 financial year, our People and Remuneration Committee continued to focus on a remuneration approach that supports the group's global strategy and enables us to attract, retain, and motivate our global executive team while incentivizing them to build long-term, sustainable, and value-adding businesses for you, the shareholders. This is critical to ensuring the best outcomes for all BHP shareholders.
Our remuneration framework has received strong support from our shareholders since it was introduced. In 2025, Christine O'Reilly, our People and Remuneration Committee Chair, met with shareholders and investors covering Australia, the U.K., the U.S., and Asia, representing a significant portion of our issued share capital. These discussions reinforce that the focus on our remuneration framework is on driving BHP's performance in the key areas of financial safety and sustainability. Item 10 requires adoption of the remuneration report for the year ended 30 June 2025. Item 11 seeks approval for equity awards to the CEO. This year, these awards are being made under the Cash and Deferred Plan and the Long-Term Incentive Plan described in the remuneration framework. Are there any questions on items 10 or 11? Do we have any questions registered?
Not at the moment, Chair.
If there are no further questions on these items, shown on the screen are the proxy results for items 10 and 11. This brings us to the end of our items of business. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for attending today and for your questions. They have been great and very focused on the business itself. We value your comments and your feedback. The poll will close in five minutes after the conclusion of this meeting. If you haven't already done so, please complete your voting now. Results of the meeting will be announced to the Stock Exchange shortly after the conclusion of today's meeting and will be published on our website. We now invite you to join our Board and management team for refreshments and a great opportunity to ask any other questions and to meet the executive team and the Board.
Ladies and gentlemen, I now declare the meeting closed, subject to finalisation of the poll. Thank you very much for joining us today.