BHP clinches shareholder support for $9.6 billion Oz Minerals takeover

Oz Minerals also has plans to build a new nickel and copper mine at West Musgrave in Western Australia, which could add to BHP’s expansive nickel position in the state.

Speaking after Thursday’s meeting in Adelaide, Oz Minerals chairman Rebecca McGrath and managing director Andrew Cole said investors’ strong endorsement would enable the “next chapter for Oz Minerals”.

“Pending endorsement of the court, we will become part of a major global mining company which values our strategy of creating value for stakeholders, enabled by our agile culture of inclusion, innovation and collaboration, as well as our portfolio of modern minerals operating assets and our pipeline of growth opportunities,” they said.

“We thank all our stakeholders for their contribution over the years.”

The bulk of BHP’s earnings still come from the steel-making ingredients of iron ore and coking coal, which are combined in blast furnaces to churn out liquid metal at steel mills across the globe.

Copper presently accounts for about 20 per cent of BHP’s underlying earnings, while iron ore makes up more than 50 per cent.

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However, based on long-term price forecasts, copper could make up more than 40 per cent of earnings by 2030, according to analysts. “This would support the strategy to have about 50 per cent of the portfolio, longer term, made up from copper, nickel and potash,” investment bank JPMorgan said.

Since 2021, BHP has been selling stakes in several coal mines and has offloaded its entire global oil and gas division, partly to free up its ability to spend more on what it terms “future-facing” commodities, including nickel and copper.

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