- Write by:
-
Tuesday, August 18, 2020 - 12:50:05 PM
-
451 Visit
-
Print
Mining News Pro - BHP has now developed more than three quarters of the South Flank iron ore project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The company advanced its development projects and delivered strong results during the 2020 financial year despite the impact of COVID-19.
BHP had three major mining projects under development during the fiscal year, including South Flank, the Spence Growth Option in Chile, and the Jansen potash project in Canada.
The 85 per cent-owned South Flank project is set to be the largest iron ore processing facility ever built in Western Australia.
On schedule and budget, the 80-million-tonne-per-year project currently sits at 76 per cent completion, with BHP targeting the start of production in mid 2021.
“Our development projects and exploration programs are progressing well and in line with our strategy. We have secured, and will continue to grow, options in copper and nickel, where increasing demand and our capability give us competitive opportunities,” BHP chief executive officer Mike Henry, in the company’s 2020 financial year results announcement, said.
“BHP delivered a strong set of results for the 2020 financial year that reflect the strength, resilience and quality of our people and our portfolio. In a year marked by the challenges of the global COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest in Chile and commodity price volatility, we were safer, more reliable and lower cost.”
South Flank will replace production from BHP’s 80-million-tonne-per-annum Yandi mine. The company stated that iron ore prices have been high since the Brumadinho tailings dam tragedy in Brazil occurred in early 2019.
However, Brazilian supply recovery, the possibility of a new iron ore supply in West Africa and a reduced demand for iron ore in China are all aspects that BHP stated “would make it even more important to create competitive advantage and to grow value through driving exceptional operational performance”.
BHP has recorded an attributable profit of $US8 billion ($11 billion) for the 2020 financial year, which is in line with the previous financial year.
The company has also continued to implement autonomous trucks at three coal and iron ore mine sites in Australia.
Daunia coal mine in Central Queensland is scheduled start autonomous truck operations in February 2021, with the rollout to be completed in 2022; Newman East iron ore mine in Western Australia will finish its deployment of autonomous trucks by the end of this year; and Goonyella Riverside mine in Queensland is expected to finalise the launch of 86 autonomous trucks by early 2022.
BHP has also provided an outlook for coal, with metallurgical coal continuing to face uncertainty and weakened prices due to COVID-19.
The company is “looking at options” to leave BHP Mitsui Coal, New South Wales Energy Coal, and Cerrejón.
But a move away from blast furnace steel making is “still decades in the future,” according to BHP.
Seaborne hard coking coal demand, along with the use of energy coal will increase in India to keep the commodities competitive.
“We expect most major economies will contract heavily in 2020, China being the exception. Recovery will vary considerably by country,” Henry said.
“Our diversified portfolio and high-quality assets position us to continue to generate returns in the face of near-term uncertainty, even as we secure and create the options in future-facing commodities that will allow us to sustainably grow value in the long-term.”
Short Link:
https://www.miningnews.ir/En/News/585967
China’s state planner on Friday finalized a rule to set up a domestic coal production reserve system by 2027, aimed at ...
Chile’s SQM called another investors meeting at the request of its second-largest shareholder, Tianqi Lithium Corp., ...
The world’s coal-fired power capacity grew 2% last year, its highest annual increase since 2016, driven by new builds in ...
Peabody Energy Corp. shares sunk to the lowest in seven months after the biggest US coal miner warned that first-quarter ...
Polish government is abandoning plans to separate coal-fired power plants into a special company and is considering ...
BMO Bank quietly dropped its policy restricting lending to the coal industry in late 2023, helping it avoid being ...
Copper traded near a 15-month high as supply concerns and brighter demand prospects triggered a slew of bullish calls on ...
Rare earths prices in top producer China jumped to their highest in more than seven weeks on Monday on a wave of ...
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh discovered that bacteria found in areas polluted by acid mine drainage had ...
No comments have been posted yet ...