SYDNEY, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Australia's largest mining company BHP has reported record-breaking profits in its end-of-financial year report, as it begins to carve out its territory in the renewable future.
On Tuesday, BHP released its results for the financial year from July 2021 to June 2022. It posted a record free cash flow ever of 24.3 billion U.S. dollars which amounted to 3.25 U.S. dollars paid per share. Its underlying attributable profit also increased more than 40 percent to 23.8 billion U.S. dollars.
The better-than-expected results came off the back of a year of high global prices for many commodities including copper and coal, spurred on by the energy crisis in Europe and the conflicts in Ukraine.
"These strong results were due to safe and reliable operations, project delivery and capital discipline, which allowed us to capture the value of strong commodity prices," said BHP chief executive Mike Henry.
And while the positive results are largely the result of its fossil fuel production, the mining group has also begun to reimagine its value as coal plants in Australia face a wave of closures by 2030.
"We are pursuing options to deliver greater value for shareholders by growing the business and our exposure to future-facing commodities," said Henry.
In particular, BHP has attempted to increase investment in copper and nickel, key components in electric vehicles, and potash, a type of mineral used in plant fertilizers.
To this end, in recent weeks the giant put a bid of 8.4 billion Australian dollars (about 5.91 billion U.S. dollars) on local mining company OZ Minerals, which runs several copper mines in South Australia, but the bid was ultimately rejected.
The mining giant acknowledged the challenge of monetary policy tightening and inflation around the world, and added that it looked towards a pick up of demand for commodities from China in the coming year. ■
