Minerals exploration
Minerals exploration expenditure for the nine months ended March 2019 was US$122 million, of which US$84 million was expensed. Greenfield minerals
exploration is predominantly focused on advancing copper targets within Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Canada, South Australia and the South-West United States.
During March 2019, BHP signed a
non-binding
letter of intent with Luminex for an
earn-in
and joint venture agreement on Luminexs Tarqui 1 and 2 mining concessions in Ecuador. Negotiations to complete a binding agreement will be undertaken over the next two months.
On 15 April 2019, BHP secured a five per cent interest in Midland Exploration Inc., which has copper exploration tenements in Canada.
Following identification in November 2018 of a potential iron oxide, copper and gold (IOCG) mineralised system at Oak Dam, 65 kilometres to the south east of
Olympic Dam, BHP has commenced a further drilling program to define the extent of mineralisation.
Variance analysis relates to the relative performance
of BHP and/or its operations during the nine months ended March 2019 compared with the nine months ended March 2018, unless otherwise noted. Production volumes, sales volumes and capital and exploration expenditure from subsidiaries are reported on
a 100 per cent basis; production and sales volumes from equity accounted investments and other operations are reported on a proportionate consolidation basis. Numbers presented may not add up precisely to the totals provided due to rounding.
Copper equivalent production based on 2018 financial year average realised prices.
The following footnotes apply to this Operational Review:
(1)
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Excludes production from Onshore US.
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(2)
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2019 financial year unit cost guidance: Petroleum <US$11/boe, Escondida <US$1.15/lb, WAIO <US$15/t,
Queensland Coal
US$68-72/t
and NSWEC US$51/t; based on exchange rates of AUD/USD 0.75 and USD/CLP 663.
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(3)
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WGOM OBN 2018 Seismic Permit is OCS Permit
T18-010.
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The following abbreviations may have been used throughout this report: barrels (bbl); billion cubic feet (bcf); cost and freight (CFR);
cost, insurance and freight (CIF); dry metric tonne unit (dmtu); free on board (FOB); grams per tonne (g/t); kilograms per tonne (kg/t); kilometre (km); metre (m); million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe); million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d);
million tonnes (Mt); million tonnes per annum (Mtpa); ounces (oz); pounds (lb); thousand barrels of oil equivalent (Mboe); thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (Mboe/d); thousand ounces (koz); thousand standard cubic feet (Mscf); thousand
tonnes (kt); thousand tonnes per annum (ktpa); thousand tonnes per day (ktpd); tonnes (t); and wet metric tonnes (wmt).
In this release, the terms
BHP, Group, BHP Group, we, us, our and ourselves are used to refer to BHP Group Limited, BHP Group plc and, except where the context otherwise requires, their respective
subsidiaries as defined in note 27 Subsidiaries in section 5.1 of BHPs 30 June 2018 Annual Report and Form
20-F,
unless stated otherwise. Notwithstanding that this release may include
production, financial and other information from
non-operated
assets,
non-operated
assets are not included in the BHP Group and, as a result, statements regarding our
operations, assets and values apply only to our operated assets unless stated otherwise.
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BHP Operational Review for the nine months ended 31 March 2019
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7
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