Big Australian's copper bet continues to pay off

The world's largest mining company has delivered a strong profit as copper continues to drive most of its growth in a world of artificial intelligence, on top of record iron ore shipments.

Australia-based BHP has delivered a nine per cent lift in bottom-line net profit to $US9.8 billion ($A13.8 billion) for the 2025/26 year, on revenue of $US58.8 billion ($A82.8 billion).

Its attributable underlying profit came in at $US13.2 billion ($A18.6 billion), which was better than the consensus analyst forecast of $US12.7 billion ($A17.9 billion) and a 30 per cent uplift on the 2024/25 result.

Brandon Craig, who on Tuesday handed down his first annual results as chief executive, said BHP had met or beaten guidance across much of its portfolio.

"We delivered record iron ore production and shipments at Western Australia Iron Ore, about two million tonnes of copper for a second year running, and a strong result in coal," he said.

That, together with strong commodity prices, also drove an uplift in underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to $US32.9 billion ($A46.3 billion).

Of that total, copper generated $US18 billion ($A25 billion), accounting for 54 per cent of the group result.

"For the first time, copper contributed more than half of our underlying EBITDA and generated significant free cash flow, which means our copper production is self-funding."

As the world turns more and more to AI solutions, BHP is sitting in the box seat to supply copper, which is used to build power grids, cooling systems, and wiring that AI data centres need to operate.

BHP has a copper project pipeline across Chile, Australia and Argentina that could potentially lift production by about 40 per cent within the next 10 years.

"We have a significant opportunity to further lift performance across our assets and a clear pathway for growth."

BHP will pay a final dividend of 99 US cents per share, taking the total payout for the year to $US1.72, up from $US1.10 in the previous year.