By Rhiannon Hoyle

MELBOURNE, Australia--The chief executive of BHP Group said the world's most valuable miner is open to discussing ways it could extract in-demand critical minerals from its giant operations. But it isn't currently in talks with government officials on any such deals.

Earlier this week, the U.S. and Australia signed a new agreement aimed at shoring up critical-mineral supply chains that included funding for a project to pull gallium, needed for semiconductors, from Pittsburgh-based aluminum giant Alcoa's alumina operations in Western Australia.

Speaking to reporters after BHP's annual shareholder meeting, Mike Henry said BHP isn't discussing any similar arrangements, despite intensifying efforts by the U.S. and allied nations to find new sources of critical minerals in a market dominated by China.

"Our starting position is we'd always like to be able to do these things on our own," Henry said, adding that BHP always looks at how it can get more value out of its mining operations.

"Now, if there's requests from others to look at a particular arrangement that they may be interested in, we're also open and collaborative in that regard," he said. "But at this point in time we don't have such negotiations under way."

Obscure minerals needed for defense and modern technologies are often found mixed in deposits for other commodities, such as copper and aluminum-rich bauxite, but have historically been ignored by major miners due to little demand and low prices.

BHP's Olympic Dam copper mine in South Australia is rich in rare earths, but the miner doesn't extract them because the low grades make it unprofitable. Rare-earth processing is also technically complex and creates dangerous waste.

In a 2023 submission to the Australian government, BHP said there was the potential for more rare-earth concentrate to be produced locally if the country was willing to invest in improving processes for low-grade resources. Olympic Dam has the second-largest concentration of rare-earth elements globally, it said.

"If you get the framework right and the settings right, the investment will come," BHP Chair Ross McEwan told reporters Thursday.

McEwan said he expects some government intervention in the mining industry because "the world has woken up" to the importance of critical minerals to manufacturing. "And there's a little bit of a scramble to make sure they're going to get their share of them and not have them cut off," he said.

The agreement between the U.S. and Australia to collaborate more closely on critical-minerals development follows China's introduction of export controls on a number of minerals key to defense and other industries. China dominates the processing of rare earths and many other critical minerals.

"You've got two very, very powerful nations just flexing their muscles a bit," McEwan said of a recent escalation in U.S.-China tensions. "It's not the first time this has happened."

Melbourne-based BHP and Australia more broadly need to find a way to work with both the U.S., the country's close ally, and China, its biggest trading partner, McEwan said. "I think a business like ours and a country like ours actually just needs to work with all parties."

Write to Rhiannon Hoyle at rhiannon.hoyle@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 23, 2025 02:20 ET (06:20 GMT)

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