BHP's WA iron ore chief Tim Day rebukes Andrew Forrest's warning the Pilbara could soon be a ‘wasteland'

West Australian

5 days ago

The boss of BHP's Western Australian iron ore empire is firing back at people like Andrew Forrest painting a 'negative picture' of the Pilbara, just weeks after the Fortescue founder said the State's most resource-rich region is at risk of becoming a 'wasteland'.
BHP 'will never talk down the Pilbara', according to Tim Day, who is making the veiled rebuke on Wednesday at the Pilbara Summit held in Karratha.
'Others are painting a very different, negative picture (of the Pilbara), which we do not agree with,' Mr Day will say.
'Globally, BHP is making a significant and strategic push for commodities like potash and copper, but iron ore in the Pilbara is what has kept our business strong and stable for decades. That's not changing.
'Anyone who claims the iron ore industry is in decline needs to look at the numbers — because they're dead wrong.'
Mr Day's speech comes about a month after Fortescue founder Andrew Forrest said the Pilbara could turn into a 'wasteland', with the Cottesloe-based billionaire claiming China is increasingly looking to higher-grade iron ore overseas to feed its steel mills.
'They're looking straight into a future that may or may not include Western Australia. China will base its green steel industry on other ores that are specific to Brazil or Africa, but not our lower grades,' Mr Forrest said last month.
Mr Day told The West Australian his speech at the Pilbara Summit is not just specifically targeted at Mr Forrest, but more broadly 'getting ahead' of anti-Pilbara sentiment emerging in business circles.
Fortescue is developing an iron ore mine in the African country of Gabon, but it is the massive and high-grade Simandou iron ore mining complex on the same continent that is set to be one of the biggest challengers to the Pilbara's global supremacy.
Rio Tinto owns about a quarter of the entire Simandou complex and is spending nearly $10 billion to develop its portion, which is set to export its first iron ore next year.
But Mr Day suggests the threat of Simandou, which has been colloquially dubbed the 'Pilbara Killer', is overblown.
While BHP's key Pilbara iron ore rivals in Rio and FMG are diversifying away from their mining heartland into Africa, the Big Australian is focused on widening its gap over Rio as the most efficient operator in the Pilbara.
'Our absolute intention is to keep pushing our productivity agenda in the Pilbara over the next few years,' Mr Day told The West.
One headwind facing BHP's productivity agenda is the emerging unionisation of the Pilbara's iron ore mines over the past year.
The union movement was essentially dormant in the region since the 1980s but has now been emboldened by the Albanese Government's stance on industrial relations.
Mr Day suggested BHP was tuning out the union chest-beating.
'If you think about what's made the Pilbara successful, it is that direct relationship between employers and workers that has actually made them (the) highest paid workforce globally,' he told The West.
'This has worked extremely well, so our goal is to continue that journey, continue working closely with our workforce and do what we've been doing for many years.
'And we're still doing it now, regardless of what's happening with union involvement. We continue to drive a direct relationship with our workforce.'
Mr Day's backing of the Pilbara as the world's premier iron ore mining hub comes as Rio Tinto and Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting on Tuesday committed to spending $2.5b to extend the life of the Hope Downs mining operation in the region.