PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diversified miner BHP is looking to deepen its connection to Japan, with CEO Mike Henry telling the Annual Australia Japan Joint Business Conference that the company’s current collaboration with Japanese partners is at levels not seen for several decades.

Henry stated that the resource sector would become central to decarbonisation because the world will need a secure, timely and economic supply of minerals to successfully navigate the transition.

“The resources sector must be at the vanguard of the drive to decarbonise and together we must lead.

“To meet the aims of the Paris Agreement the world needs a staggering amount of key commodities, based on BHP’s analysis, to cap the increase in global average temperature to 1.5^o.

“Over the next 30 years compared to the last 30 years, the world will need to double copper production and increase nickel production almost four-fold, both of which will require a commensurate lift in secure, reliable smelting and refining capacity, and the world will need almost twice as much steel over the same period.

“The challenge is made more significant by the fact that the resources required to meet these demands are smaller, lower grade, deeper, and faced with an increasing number of other challenges and expectations. The value chains for these commodities and their end products must also be decarbonised, requiring technological innovation and further investment. 

“We must seek out opportunities to work together to make the world safer, cleaner and ultimately more secure,” Henry said.

He told delegates that BHP had been doing its part to produce critical minerals in the most sustainable way possible, including moving to renewable electricity supply at its operations, ceasing the use of water from Andean aquifers in lieu of desalinated water at its Chilean copper operations, and supporting a desalination project in South Australia.

“The world must address head-on the threat posed by climate change. That’s going to require minerals. It is essential that those minerals are produced in a sustainable way, and that their associated value chains are stable, reliable and also progressing towards being carbon free.

“This need has seen us deepen our levels of collaboration with Japanese partners to levels not seen for many decades. And we continue to explore opportunities to do more together, faster,” Henry said.

“This is a challenge though that obviously goes beyond the capacity of businesses alone. We need support and cooperation at a regional and global level. We need governments to develop and implement policies that support investment and the energy transition.

“For companies, the partnerships we create must transcend the short-term financial opportunity and focus as well on long-term sustainability. For both business and governments, we must focus on creating happiness and prosperity regardless of borders.”