BHP Group Limited (BHP) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP) Q4 2022 Results Conference Call August 16, 2022 6:30 PM ET

Company Participants

Mike Henry - Chief Executive Officer

David Lamont - Chief Financial Officer

Mike Henry

Hello, and thank you for joining us today to hear about BHP's results for the 2022 financial year. I'm joined by our Chief Financial Officer, David Lamont, who will take us through the financial details shortly.

First, though, I'd like to mention some highlights from the year. BHP delivered a record set of results for the year, continuing our track record of strong performance. Our assets overcame multiple challenges to deliver solid operational performance demonstrating the resilience of our business. Most importantly, we had another fatality for a year. And we did what we said we would do making significant progress on reshaping our portfolio to deliver value now and into the future. We merged our Petroleum business with Woodside, capturing value and providing choice for shareholders. We completed the sales of our interest in Cerrejon and BMC, further focusing our coal portfolio on higher-quality coals for steelmaking.

We unified our corporate structure, making us simpler and more agile. We approved the Jansen Stage 1 potash project in Canada, giving us a pipeline of high-quality growth in what is an exciting future-facing commodity. We're accelerating studies for growth, including Jansen Stage 2 and Western Australian Iron Ore to 330 million tonnes per annum. And we continue to take action on climate.

We have a differentiated proven approach to growing value. This is reflected in the quality of our portfolio that saw a rise in earnings in the second half of the financial year, unlike many others in the sector as well as our approach to social value and how we bring together our people and culture, systems and processes and ways of working.

We remain unwavering in our efforts to improve safety and protect our people, and it is thanks to that clear prioritization and its application by our workforce and leaders that we have now gone more than 3.5 years without a fatality. We are also experiencing fewer high-potential injuries, those that could cause significant injury or fatality, which is a leading indicator of our safety performance. Our strong focus on safety and health includes our work towards the elimination of sexual harassment, racism and bullying from BHP. We have continued to take strong action, making upgrades to security and accommodation villages, enhancing training programs including for both leaders and bystanders, and improving support services.