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February 17, 2026 — 9:20am
Worldwide demand for electrification, renewable energy, and the digital infrastructure needed to power AI has made copper, often labelled the “metal of the future,” the biggest earner at global mining giant BHP.
The world’s biggest miner hit the milestone in the half-year to December after a four-year drive to boost copper production saw red metal comprise the largest share of BHP’s underlying earnings, previously dominated by the resource giant’s output of iron ore from its Pilbara operations in Western Australia.
BHP is the world’s largest copper producer. The strong performance of its key mine in Chile, Escondida, and contributions from other mines in Chile and South Australia, resulted in the miner increasing its copper guidance to between 1.9 and 2 megatonnes.
“This is allowing us to maximise increased earnings from the recent run-up in copper prices as well as gold,” chief executive Mike Henry said. “We have achieved around 30 per cent growth in copper production in the last four years, positioning us ahead of the strengthening copper market that we had anticipated.”
BHP said its half-year profit was up 28 per cent to $US5.64 billion ($8 billion) and it reported revenue up 11 per cent to $US27.9 billion.
The mining giant is reaping the benefits of rising commodity prices, particularly copper which jumped about 55 per cent over the past two years.
Henry said BHP expects global economic growth will hit around 3 per cent this year.
“China’s economy is resilient after meeting its around 5 per cent target last year. India continues to outperform. We are optimistic that the economic backdrop is supportive for our key commodities. Against a structurally higher cost environment, these conditions reinforce the importance of productivity and cost discipline and play to the strengths of BHP’s low cost, diversified portfolio,” Henry said.
BHP said it has reached a $US4.3 billion long-term streaming agreement with Wheaton Precious Metals International to take BHP’s share of the silver produced at the Antamina mine in Peru, a joint venture it owns along with Glencore and Teck Resources.
The company said the deal will allow it to realise the value of Antamina’s silver as a byproduct and it will retain all the copper, zinc and lead production from its share of mine.
BHP will pay investors an interim dividend of US73¢ cents fully franked on March 26.
More to come
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