For the first time in BHP's history, copper earned more than iron ore

In the annual results released on August 17, copper accounted for 54% of the operating profit of the world's largest mining company — a sign that electrification now outweighs steel in the diversified giants' bottom line.

BHP released its results on August 17 for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026: underlying attributable profit of US$13.2 billion, up 30% from the prior year, on revenue of US$58.8 billion, up 15%. The year's total dividend reached 172 US cents per share — US$8.7 billion, the largest payout in four years. Behind the consolidated number lies a structural shift in the business mix: copper, once the smaller sibling of iron ore within BHP, delivered US$18.2 billion in EBITDA with a 70% margin and now represents 54% of the group's EBITDA. It's the first time this has happened in the company's history — even as copper production fell 3% for the year, to 1.95 million tonnes, due to lower grades at the Escondida mine in Chile.

A quarterly or annual result is almost never just about the final number — it's about what changes in the mix behind it, and that mix is what directs where capital will be invested in the years ahead. BHP was born and grew as an iron ore story; the fact that copper has now overtaken that historic pillar isn't just the result of a favorable price this fiscal year, it's the outcome of a demand thesis the company had already been building for some time — EV electrification, transmission grid expansion, AI data center infrastructure, and a copper investment cycle that simply hasn't kept pace with demand in recent years. On the supply side, the result itself shows the other half of the equation: even at a record price, BHP's copper production fell, because mature mines like Escondida operate with ever-lower ore grades — each tonne of copper extracted requires moving and processing more rock than it did a decade ago. Reading both sides together — rising structural demand, aging mines making supply increasingly expensive to sustain — is what explains why the company is committing its own capital to raise production by up to 50% by the mid-2030s, instead of simply harvesting this cycle's high price.

When the world's largest diversified miner shifts the composition of its own profit this way, the signal spreads across the rest of the sector: other diversified miners had already been repositioning in the same direction, as with Anglo American's merger with Teck, expected to leave copper accounting for more than 70% of the combined company's result. For managers and investors, the practical lesson is that commodity portfolio is no longer just a decision about which metal is priced highest right now — it's a bet on which metal will sustain the next decade of structural demand. For those working in mine planning, the data on declining grade at Escondida is a reminder that even the world's most profitable assets face a physical supply limit that high prices alone can't solve.