17th Feb 2026 14:40
(Alliance News) - BHP Group Ltd is cashing in on a mania for copper, the red metal that has staked its claim as an essential part of the growth of artificial intelligence.
The Melbourne, Australia-based diversified miner posted pretax profit of USD11.56 billion for the six months that ended December 31, up by one third from USD8.67 billion a year earlier. Attributable profit rose 28% to USD5.64 billion from USD4.42 billion.
Even more impressive, underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation for the group grew by a quarter to USD15.5 billion from USD12.4 billion, with copper accounting for a whopping 51% of the total bounty. Copper underlying Ebitda surged 59% to USD8.0 billion from USD5.0 billion.
Copper production was 0.3% lower at 984,100 tonnes for the first half to December 31 from 987,100 tonnes a year prior.
But strong copper prices helped offset the slight drop in production.
The average realised copper price rose 32% to USD5.28 per pound for the first half from USD3.99, thanks in part to tight supply following disruptions at major copper mines and the threat of tariffs.
BHP on Tuesday revised up its copper production guidance for the financial year ending June 30 to between 1.9 million tonnes and 2.0 million, from between 1.8 million tonnes and 2.0 million forecast previously.
The mining major said it has a significant pipeline of organic copper growth projects, which it estimates could increase its attributable copper production to 2 million tonnes a year by financial 2035, an increase of 40% above current attributable copper production levels.
For the financial year that ended in June 2025, copper production was 2.0 million tonnes.
Shares in BHP were up 0.2% to 2,681.00 pence in London on Tuesday afternoon. They were up 1.4% in Johannesburg to ZAR583.39, and closed up 4.7% in Sydney at AUD52.74.
Investors' renewed interest in BHP comes as copper is becoming a key ingredient especially for AI, which runs on electricity, data centres and advanced hardware.
The roll-out of AI data centres, and electric vehicle and renewable energy infrastructure is heavily reliant on copper, AJ Bell analyst Russ Mould said. "That's why there is such a scramble for the metal and why miners are benefiting from record prices," Mould added.
"This copper-mania is evident in the latest numbers from BHP and Antofagasta. Copper contributed the largest share of BHP's profit for the first time and there is a good chance it will remain top of the pile for the foreseeable future," the AJ Bell analyst said.
Antofagasta PLC on Tuesday said its pretax profit climbed 53% to USD3.16 billion in 2025 from USD2.07 billion in 2024. But copper production at Antofagasta decreased 1.6% to 653,700 tonnes in 2025 from 664,000 tonnes in 2024. Antofagasta expects to produce between 650,000 and 700,000 tonnes of copper in 2026.
Antofagasta is a smaller and purer play on the copper price, but has nearly doubled in value in the last year to reflect exposure to a red-hot commodity, Mould said.
"BHP may have failed in its efforts to combine with Anglo American as a way of increasing its exposure to copper but a series of smaller deals have helped it to maintain its position as the largest producer of the metal in the world," Mould continued.
Early this month, Anglo American PLC reported that copper production fell 10% to 695,000 tonnes in 2025 from 773,000 in 2024. Anglo American expects copper production to rise to between 700,000 tonnes and 760,000 in 2026, up to between 750,000 tonnes and 810,000 in 2027, and up to between 790,000 tonnes and 850,000 in 2028.
Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Matt Britzman said BHP's strong interim results were supported by "standout" copper performance and record production across key assets.
Copper has now overtaken iron ore as the biggest earnings driver, Britzman said, though iron ore remains a major cash generator, with Western Australia Iron Ore again delivering record output and sector-leading costs.
"Strong cash generation and a resilient balance sheet underpin a business with two powerful profit engines - copper as the new growth leader and iron ore still a dependable cash cow", the Hargreaves Lansdown analyst said.
For the first half, BHP said iron ore production was up 2.3% to 133.8 million tonnes from 130.8 million tonnes a year earlier. BHP kept its iron ore production guidance between 251 million tonnes and 262 million tonnes for financial 2026, compared with 263.0 million a year before.
BHP on Tuesday sounds bullish about the copper outlook, given tight supply and strong demand.
The miner expects Chinese copper demand to remain strong in the 2026 calendar year, with robust demand from India also likely persist.
Given the strong demand outlook, combined with the impact of disruptions at its competitor's mines, grade declines and the slow mine development pipeline, BHP said it anticipates a continued tight copper market over the next few years.
"The supply shortfall is expected to be addressed through a combination of greater scrap generation (although trade barriers, the fragmented supply-chain and rising collection costs could act as a constraint), recovery in currently disrupted mine operations and new mine supply," BHP said.
"However, the market still requires 10 [million tonnes] of additional, as-yet-uncommitted new supply, to be able to balance by [2035]."
Copper fundamentals remain attractive, the mining group said. Demand is expected to grow from 34 million tonnes today to over 50 million by 2050, with the key drivers being "traditional" economic growth, "energy transition", and "digital".
BHP said growth potential for "digital" is promising, and estimated that copper demand in data centres could grow sixfold to nearly 3 million tonnes a year by 2050.
By Artwell Dlamini, Alliance News senior reporter South Africa
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