BHP Reports Strong Half-Year Copper Results, Boosts Guidance for 2026

BHP (ASX:BHP,NYSE:BHP,LSE:BHP) has published its financial results for the half-year ended December 31, 2025.

The mining giant said its copper operations, which span multiple continents, accounted for the largest share of its overall earnings for the first time, coming in at 51 percent of underlying EBITDA.

In 2026, BHP has boosted its copper output guidance to between 1.9 million and 2 million metric tons (MT).

Looking at the company's Australian operations, Copper South Australia delivered a 2 percent production increase for the half-year period, valued at 148,000 metric tons (MT). BHP said it is expecting Copper South Australia to deliver over 500,000 MT of copper per year in the first phase, and up to 650,000 MT in the second phase.

“We expect the first phase growth projects at our mines and concentrators to be at competitive capital intensities of (US$16,000 to US$21,000 per MT copper equivalent," the company noted.

At Olympic Dam, which is also located in South Australia, BHP reported that the Southern Mining Area decline is advancing, with the box cut now complete and lateral development underway.

Once finished, the work is expected to provide up to 2.5 million MT per year of additional vertical capacity, creating flexibility for future mine expansion once completed in 2028.

BHP said in October that it would be investing more than AU$840 million in Olympic Dam in order to keep building out its copper presence in South Australia, with the focus being on the decline as well as other areas.

South Australia's copper exports reached AU$3.1 billion in 2025, up 16 percent from the previous year, with the state being home to 70 percent of the country’s economic copper reserves.

BHP remains the world’s largest copper producer, with its key asset being a 57.5 percent share in the joint venture Escondida mine with companies Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO,NYSE:RIO,LSE:RIO) and Japan's JECO.

Rio owns 30 percent, while JECO holds the remaining 12.5 percent. Located in the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile, Escondida has two pits that feed three concentrator plants, alongside oxide and sulfide leaching operations.

The mine created revenue amounting to US$7,924 million for BHP for the half year. Production-wise, it kept its momentum from the previous period and delivered 646,000 MT of copper.

Together with the Pampa Norte asset in Chile, BHP said it hopes that Escondida will enable production of approximately 1.4 million MT per year of copper through the 2030s.

“We continue to prosecute our strategy of operational excellence, distinctive social value creation and growth in copper and potash,” said BHP CEO Mike Henry in the company's half-year release.

“We have achieved ~30 percent growth in copper production in the last four years, positioning us ahead of the strengthening copper market that we had anticipated.”

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Securities Disclosure: I, Gabrielle de la Cruz, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.