Mining giant looks beyond Australia in support for exploration longshots
BHP has chosen to back early-stage exploration projects in jurisdictions such as Saudi Arabia and Germany after weighing up the merits of Australian options.
BHP has overlooked offering assistance to junior companies seeking to make their mark with early-stage mining exploration projects in Australia, instead favouring the Middle East, North and South America, and Europe.
Projects in jurisdictions such as Saudi Arabia and Germany were preferred to those in Australia after BHP received hundreds of applications for its 2025 Xplor accelerator program.
BHP named the eight successful applicants on Monday, with two ASX-listed companies that are pursuing projects overseas making the cut.
The mining giant cast a wide net in backing projects mainly in copper, gold and critical minerals after a year when chief executive Mike Henry questioned Australia’s ability to remain globally competitive in mining under its current industrial relations rules and other policies.
BHP said Xplor gave it access to some of the world’s most exciting exploration prospects and to improve the pipeline of opportunities which could shape its asset portfolio.
Australian projects featured in the inaugural Xplor program in 2023 and again in 2024.
Xplor boss Marley Palin said the quality of exploration projects selected this year was extremely high.
“We are excited to work with companies across Canada, the USA, Serbia, Germany, Peru, Argentina and Saudi Arabia. Successful applicants demonstrated strong leadership, a commitment to innovation in their exploration programs, and a willingness to push industry boundaries in applying new concepts, data and testing techniques,” she said.
Each of the successful companies receives an equity-free grant of up to $US500,000 and access to a network of BHP and external industry experts to build out and accelerate their exploration.
The share price of ASX-listed minnow Firetail jumped more than 17 per cent to 6.7c after it received BHP backing for its Picha copper project in Peru.
However, Firetail’s focus is on its recently acquired Skyline copper project in Newfoundland in Canada more so than Picha.
Firetail completed its purchase of a majority stake in the Picha and Charaque copper projects in Peru from another Perth-based company, Thunderbird Resources (formerly known as Valor), in September 2023 for $550,000 in cash and 15 million Firetail shares.
Thunderbird, which owns 30 per cent of the Peru projects, was in a trading halt on Monday after its executive chairman George Bauk was hired to run Peninsula Energy. Mr Bauk was central to pulling together the Picha project, covering 222sq km in southern Peru, while at Thunderbird.
BHP also opted to back London and ASX-listed GreenX Metals in its search for copper in Germany through the Tannenberg project. The other companies on the Xplor list are Scout Discoveries (US projects), Orogen Royalties (US), Condor Prospecting (Argentina), Viridian Metals (Canada), DesertEx (Saudi Arabia) and Electrum Discovery (Serbia).