Scandal-hit mining companies BHP and Glencore pay record $12bn to investors
Scandal-hit mining companies BHP and Glencore have paid out a record $12bn in dividends to investors as the price of the materials the companies mine continues to boom.
BHP, the world’s biggest mining group which scrapped its dual stock market structure dropping London last year for a sole listing in Sydney, announced a record $7.6bn half-year dividend on Tuesday.
The company makes most of its profits from mining iron ore in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, where it has ministerial permission to destroy as many as 40 sites of cultural importance to the country’s native Aborigines.
Following investor outrage at its mining plans, the company subsequently pledged not to damage any of the sites without “extensive consultation” with native owners.
BHP is aiming to transition its business to derive half of revenues from “future facing commodities” – metals needed in a low-carbon economy beyond fossil fuels – by 2030. BHP made $9.7bn in adjusted profits for the half year to the end of December, a 57% year-on-year increase.
Anglo-Swiss rival Glencore, one of the world’s biggest miners and commodity traders, has also benefited from the soaring price of oil, gas and metals as economies seek to recover from the pandemic.
The company paid a $4bn dividend to shareholders as it reported record adjusted profits of $21.3bn last year, an 83% increase over 2020. Glencore also said it had set aside $1.5bn to pay for the costs of investigations into bribery and market manipulation.
The company is facing corruption investigations in the US, UK and Brazil relating to its mining operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, home to the world’s largest reserves of cobalt, a crucial metal in electric battery manufacture, as well as
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