Dow Today – BHP Picks the Worst Moment to Return to Mining Megadeals

There was a great time to buy assets like these — and it was during the decade-long slump for industrial metals. Right now, BHP’s better approach would be to use its talents to grow production from the giant deposits still sitting on its books. The end of the last mining boom nearly  10 years ago didn’t just halt BHP’s M&A pipeline. It also meant major expansions to some of its existing pits, such as Australia’s Olympic Dam, Chile’s Pampa Escondida, and Peru’s Antamina, were put on the back burner. Resolution, a huge joint venture copper mine in Arizona with Rio Tinto, is stalled because of a failure to get the buy-in of Indigenous groups. Developing any of these would represent a better use of capital than a top-of-the-market purchase of a rival.