BHP ‘invests’ over $100m in Indigenous partnerships

Mining giant BHP has released its Australian Indigenous Social Investment Report, detailing its contributions and evolving strategy for partnering with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

In the 2024–25 financial year, BHP’s total Australian social investment was $102.2 million, according to a statement from the company.

This included $31.8 million in direct Indigenous social investment aligned with its Indigenous partnerships pillar.

This was further supported by an additional $22.4 million in projects supporting Indigenous communities under other social value pillars.

BHP headquarters in Perth.

“Building on the foundations of the inaugural report, this year’s report reflects our ongoing commitment to partnering with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities to support long-term, positive outcomes,” BHP president Australia Geraldine Slattery and chief legal governance and external affairs officer Caroline Cox said in a statement.

“Indigenous partnerships are central to these relationships and vital to the sustainability of our operations,”

Operationally, the $31.8 million investment was allocated across six key focus areas:

• The largest share was $9.4 million for community, health and wellbeing.
• $8.4 million for Indigenous governance, economic development and advocacy.
• Education and training received $5 million.
• Knowledges, languages, and technologies received $4.3 million.
• Arts and culture $2.8 million.
• Country, nature and environment $1.6 million.

For BHP, the strategy aims to align with community aspirations and is reinforced by its Reconciliation Action Plan.

BHP president Australia Geraldine Slattery.

A key development in year was the launch of a newly revised Indigenous Cultural Respect Framework. The framework guides the workforce in building cultural capability through “knowing, doing, being” pillars and continuous learning.

Looking ahead to 2026, BHP said it plans to formalise an Indigenous Social Investment Community of Practice to bring partners together biannually, improve internal systems, and explore new evaluation models to better measure the “felt experience” of communities.