BMA’s Central Queensland coal mines were able to record a 5 per cent lift in production for the nine months to March 31 despite the highest rainfall wet season the area has seen in more than a decade.
With a year-to-date total of 25.7 million tonnes produced across the operations, the group is still expected to meet guidance of 33-38Mt for the year, albeit within the lower end of the range.
BHP chief executive officer Mike Henry said strong performance across the BMA’s open-cut mines saw it achieve the slight lift in production.
Main image: BMA operation in the Bowen Basin
This was taking previous production figures from Blackwater and Daunia out of the equation following their acquisition by Whitehaven Coal in April last year.
A drawdown of inventory also helped mitigate the impact of significant wet weather in the Bowen Basin in the December and March quarters.
In other sectors, BHP delivered record nine-month group copper production of 1.5 million tonnes, aided by a 20 per cent increase at Escondida.
It also delivered record nine-month iron ore production, with the WA iron ore operations demonstrating resilience to offset the impact of Tropical Cyclone Zelia and Tropical Storm Sean.
BHP remains on track to deliver FY25 unit cost guidance across all assets, except the BMA coal operations.
Those unit costs are expected to be higher due to the impact of weather and geotechnical challenges at Broadmeadow.
Unit costs for FY25 for the steelmaking coal operations are now expected to be between $US128/t and $US133/t. Meanwhile the average realised price BMA has seen for its coal so far this financial year is $US200.12/t.
The group is operating at slower mining rates at Broadmeadow mine to safely manage the geotechnical characteristics of the current longwall panel. BHP said this was expected to continue into Q1 FY26.
‘Our work to improve raw coal inventory levels in prior periods has assisted in stabilising operating performance across the asset, as we have drawn down on inventory this quarter to help mitigate the impact of wet weather and geotechnical challenges,’ BHP said in the quarterly update. ‘This will extend the inventory rebuild into CY27.’
The Moranbah area recorded 649mm of rainfall in the nine months ended March 31, 2025, 32 per cent more than in the nine months ended March 31, 2024