Do we like them?

Do we like BHP?

World's biggest miner: iron ore, copper, coal and potash. Based in Melbourne, Australia.

Our score: 4 out of 10. Safer and a huge taxpayer, but a UK court found it liable for the Mariana dam disaster and its emissions are large. We'd hold our nose, not back it.

BHP is the 'Big Australian', now based in Melbourne and the world's biggest miner. It has long dug iron ore and coal. It now says copper is its growth bet, and copper made more than half of its underlying earnings in the half-year to December 2025. Brandon Craig, a 25-year BHP veteran, took over as CEO from Mike Henry on 1 July 2026.

The big cloud is Mariana, Brazil. In 2015 the Fundão dam, run by BHP and Vale's Samarco joint venture, collapsed. Nineteen people died and rivers were polluted. In November 2025 a London High Court judge found BHP liable, saying the collapse was foreseeable. BHP said it would appeal, and the court refused permission to appeal in January 2026.

Over 600,000 claimants want up to £36bn in the UK, and the damages trials are expected to finish in 2028 or 2029. BHP says about 240,000 claimants were already paid under Brazil's separate deal. BHP and Vale agreed a roughly $31.7bn settlement with Brazilian authorities.

Closer to home, the Fair Work Commission ordered pay parity for labour-hire workers at BHP's Queensland coal mines. BHP challenged this, and the High Court refused it leave to appeal in April 2026. BHP also reports it was levied seven environmental fines in FY2025, worth about US$8m.

On the plus side, BHP says it is a top-three Australian corporate taxpayer, and its high-potential injury rate has fallen sharply. One analysis of its 2026 report notes no fatalities in FY2026. Emissions are the other drag: that same analysis says operational emissions rose in FY2026 and Scope 3 is about 429 Mt. Hence a below-middle score.