There appears to be no love lost between two of the country’s most powerful mining groups – BHP and Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue. It may have ever been thus, but there are now billions of dollars and reputations at stake over their divergent views on the green energy transition.
Forrest’s view is well established. The world needs to cut emissions now and he insists the technology is there to do so, and so has set the remarkably ambitious goal of eliminating all fossil fuels from his giant iron ore mining operations in the Pilbara within four years – to save money and to prove a point.
What is less known is the spectacular backflip by the world’s biggest mining company BHP, which a few years ago came out all warm and cuddly around renewables and electrification, but which has now abandoned those plans and turned to media advertising and government pressure to protect its reputation and its cash flows.
The full extent of BHP’s backflip was highlighted in an ABC Four Corners program – and Guardian reports – on Monday night, courtesy of a bundle of internal documents that revealed the decisions to dump planned wind, solar and battery projects, and put off the electrification of its mining fleet by a decade or more.
