Could you provide an overview of BHP Exploration and the kind of assets you are looking for? 

The role of BHP Exploration is to identify top-tier, multi-generational resources, similar to our current assets – in other words, we are looking for the next Escondida or Olympic Dam, some of the biggest mines in the world. We focus on areas near our existing operations, such as the Andes region in South America, while also exploring emerging regions like Eastern Europe and Western Asia. In Africa, where conditions on the ground are improving, we have already invested in two companies in Botswana through the Xplor program and are actively seeking additional opportunities across the continent. Commodity-wise, BHP has a solid foundation in iron, coal, nickel and copper, but our goal is to double our portfolio in future-facing commodities, namely copper and potash. BHP Exploration’s mission is to find those opportunities that will feed into our pipeline for the next 10-15 years.

Could you introduce the BHP Xplor accelerator program?

In the game of exploration, you must be a first-mover, yet no matter how big or talented our global team at BHP Exploration is, it is impossible to track every single geological idea and opportunity worldwide. This is how the Xplor program was born: We wanted to tap into a larger pool of experts with local knowledge outside of the areas we were most comfortable in, get there before anybody else, and build ourselves through partnerships to ultimately grow our portfolio. There are thousands of junior companies out there, and the Xplor program allows us to screen large amounts of opportunities (we’ve had over 750 applicants in the first two years of the program) and identify the best of the best. More than that, by having the selected cohort join us for six months, we get a good window of time to understand how the company operates and how we can best work together. I think of the six-month accelerator as dating before you get married; at the end of the “dating” period, we decide whether we will “marry” or not. Most mining companies have been there, entering a JV that turned into a failure because of the missing cultural fit or other issues. 

What does the six-month program consist of?

The companies selected to participate (seven in 2023, six in 2024) get an equity free grant of up to US$500,000 to further develop their exploration idea. But the real gain is the curriculum we offer, across three pillars, namely business readiness, technical, and operational. On the business side, we offer coaching on things like communication skills and how to pitch to an investor; on the technical side, we provide mentorship and connections with both BHP experts as well as external experts; and on the operational side, we guide them on what it takes to run a safe operation or how to engage with local communities. At the end of this six-months, we want to see each of them leaving not just with an idea, but with a 360-degree investable business. 

In what ways do you think technology, including AI, can transform exploration?

If we think we can create meaningful impact over the next 30 years by doing the same things we've done for the past 30 years, we're only fooling ourselves—especially given the current low exploration success rates. But technology can disrupt and revolutionalize exploration. One of the industry's key opportunities is to adapt existing geophysical technologies from the oil and gas sector and apply them to mineral exploration, for example, using passive seismic methods for sedimentary copper deposits or high-grade IOCG-type deposits. At BHP, we successfully applied these technologies in some of our discoveries in Southern Australia. We can utilize existing datasets to build predictive tools in areas where direct data may not be available. For instance, BHP has developed the first generative AI tool in collaboration with AWS, which allows us to use our vast data resources more effectively to ask specific questions related to mineral systems. Additionally, we are the first mining company to build a complete cloud-based database for exploration. We are also creating machine learning tools that essentially train the system to act like a ‘mineral system brain,’ capable of interpreting information and identifying regions with the highest potential for large-scale mineral discoveries.