BHP’s South Australian copper business has performed better than expected following the $9.6 billion acquisition of OZ Minerals last year, with the company delivering record amounts of material mined at Olympic Dam.

The company said it achieved record copper mined and concentrate smelted at Olympic Dam in FY24 – with production rising by 39 per cent to 322kt in the period.

Total copper production worldwide rose by 9 per cent to 1865kt, with the bulk of that coming from its Escondida mine in Chile (1125kt).

The company said it completed the integration of the OZ Minerals business during the fourth quarter. The 2023 acquisition of the South Australian mining business gave BHP control of the Prominent Hill and Carrapateena copper and gold mines, and some West Australian copper and nickel projects too.

“We have exceeded our planned annualised synergies, such as the processing of Prominent Hill and Carrapateena concentrate at Olympic Dam into higher-margin cathode and refined gold, resulting in annual records for cathode and gold production at Olympic Dam,” BHP said.

Other highlights for BHP in the quarter included record material mined and concentrate produced at Carrapateena and further exploration drilling at Oak Dam.

Copper production guidance in FY25 for South Australia is between 310-340kt, said BHP.

“We finished the year with a strong fourth quarter, achieving several production records and we are meeting current production and unit cost guidance for all commodities,” BHP CEO Mike Henry said.

“We achieved a strong performance across our copper business globally, underpinned by the highest production in four years at Escondida and another year of record production from Spence in Chile.

“Successful integration at Copper South Australia has delivered additional production tonnes, and exceeded the annualised synergies planned at the time of the OZL acquisition.”

BHP’s Olympic Dam was a standout performer in FY24. Photo: Thomas Kelsall/InDaily.

Overall, the fourth quarter was strong for BHP and achieved full-year production guidance for copper, iron ore, energy coal and nickel.

However, it was a challenging year for its metallurgical coal business as a result of low inventory from extended weather impacts and labour constraints.

The company also recently announced it would temporarily suspend operations of its nickel business in Western Australia from October in response to a global oversupply of the mineral and low prices.

The decision to suspend operations will be reviewed in February 2027, and the company announced it would invest $450 million per year to support a potential re-start of Western Australian Nickel.

Workers will be offered another role within BHP or the choice of a redundancy payout.

BHP is expected to release its full-year financial results on 27 August 2024.