Local communities

community, family, smiling
BHP understands we all have a role to play in understanding and managing social impacts and building resilience through all phases of an asset’s lifecycle.
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Our ambition

Strong, resilient communities are essential to to the long-term success of our business and to delivering lasting social value across the lifecycle of our activities. We recognise that our activities can create both impacts and opportunities for communities and that responsible management of social impacts is critical to maintain trust, our social licence to operate, and long-term shared value.

Within the Thriving, empowered communities pillar, our 2030 social value goal is to partner with communities and stakeholders to co-create and implement plans that deliver jointly defined economic, social and environmental outcomes. This ambition reflects our commitment to support inclusive development, respect human rights and contribute positively to community wellbeing throughout the lifecycle of our assets, including closure and legacy assets.

For more information on our 2030 social value goals refer to the Sustainability approach webpage. 

Our approach and position  

We aim to build respectful, transparent and trust-based relationships with local communities through open and honest engagement. This enables us to understand community context, aspirations and concerns, assess the potential impacts of our activities, and identify opportunities to make a meaningful and responsible contribution to development outcomes.

Our approach is informed by leading international frameworks and standards, including the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), United Nations Global Compact, and the IFC Performance Standards. These frameworks guide how we identify, avoid, minimise or mitigate adverse impacts on communities and enhance positive social outcomes.

We define communities broadly as individuals and groups who are economically, socially or environmentally impacted by our activities, directly or indirectly, including those with cultural, spiritual or historical connections to land. Our collaborative community approach focuses on:

  • understanding community context and impacts through baseline studies and ongoing research
  • integrating community and human rights considerations into decision-making
  • co-creating initiatives with communities and partners
  • tracking outcomes and continuously improving performance

We also recognise our role in supporting communities through periods of change and transition across the mining life cycle, including economic transition and closure. Our approach to equitable transitions seeks to ensure impacts are carefully considered, inclusive and addressed through meaningful engagement and partnership. Our approach will: 

  • Recognise our responsibility to our workforce: Where a major change in our business is expected to affect our workforce, we will engage in meaningful dialogue and support those impacted. 
  • Create opportunity for meaningful engagement and co-designed processes: We will seek to develop relationships with stakeholders and partners, including government, local businesses, community members, suppliers, Indigenous peoples and workers, that support understanding of the issues and co-creation of solutions. We will communicate transparently on the types of changes the business needs to make and enable active participation of those most impacted. 
  • Recognise the impacts associated with gender, land connectedness and social and economic vulnerability: We will not assume all people are affected similarly. We will seek to understand how impacts may be differently experienced, including for Indigenous peoples, and recognise plans and solutions must consider the particular strengths of each community and tackle the unique impacts they experience.  
  • Recognise the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development are inter-related: We will aim to avoid or mitigate adverse environmental impacts of change and transitions, while pursuing opportunities to build climate resilience and environmentally sustainable communities. 
Governance and Oversight
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The Board of BHP Group Limited is ultimately accountable for overseeing the effectiveness of BHP’s risk management systems and internal controls. The Board’s Risk and Audit Committee and Sustainability Committee assist in that oversight by reviewing and considering BHP’s material risk profile on a biannual basis, as well as other subject matter specific management reports. For information on the role of the BHP Board in overseeing our approach to and delivery on sustainability refer to the Sustainability approach webpage.

Our Community and Indigenous Peoples Global Standard sets out our minimum requirements for identifying, assessing and managing impacts and opportunities related to communities, and applies to all our operated assets, growth activities and functions in accordance with our reporting scope and boundaries. It is reviewed regularly by the Chief Legal, Governance and External Affairs Officer.  

Reporting to the Chief Legal, Governance and External Affairs Officer, we have a dedicated global Human Rights and Social Performance team within our External Affairs function that develops and conducts assurance of the Community and Indigenous Peoples Global Standard and related standards for our growth activities and operated assets, as well as provides capability building across our first line teams and business relationships. Our Community teams, also within our External Affairs function, provide support directly to our operated assets and conduct the day-to-day engagement with communities. 

 

Ongoing, two-way engagement with communities is central to our approach. Through regular dialogue, social research and partnership, we seek to understand expectations, concerns, priorities and aspirations, and to incorporate community perspectives into planning and decision-making.

We engage with a broad range of stakeholders, including:

  • local communities and Indigenous peoples
  • governments and local authorities
  • civil society organisations and human rights experts
  • industry peers and associations
  • investors and other external stakeholders

Where appropriate, we partner with community organisations and other delivery partners to co-design and implement initiatives that address locally identified priorities and contribute to long-term social value. We also engage regularly with civil society, social performance experts and other companies in mining and other sectors to enhance our understanding of current social expectations, trends and perceptions relating to human rights, the impacts of our activities on communities, and opportunities for collective action. 

Community complaints and grievance mechanisms

All operated assets are required to maintain complaints and grievance mechanisms aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights effectiveness criteria. These mechanisms are designed to be accessible, culturally appropriate, transparent and free from retaliation. In addition to our operational-level complaints and grievance mechanisms, our channels to raise misconduct concerns, including any human rights concerns, comprise an online portal and 24-hour confidential, multilingual call service that is accessible to all, including external stakeholders and the public, to report conduct that may be unethical, illegal or inconsistent with Our Code of Conduct. 

Complaints and grievances are recorded, tracked and managed through our event management system, with oversight and escalation processes in place where required.

We view feedback as an opportunity to build and enhance trust, review current processes and continually improve. Ensuring that concerns can be raised about our business activities or processes is something we take very seriously.

Following receipt of a complaint made through any of our operational-level complaints and grievance mechanisms or our channels to raise misconduct concerns, the complaint will be registered in BHP’s event management system and the person submitting the complaint will be contacted by a member of the BHP team within two business days.

All complaints will be carefully considered, treated respectfully and written responses will be provided. We will work with individuals to resolve issues and ensure they are kept updated as the investigation progresses. All details of the complaint, including contact details, will be kept confidential and recorded in line with our Privacy Policy. People can also elect to raise a complaint anonymously.

If the issue cannot be resolved or the individual is not satisfied with the outcome, management will review the investigation and determine future actions. Independent arbitration may be convened.

Community stakeholders can raise feedback via a range of channels, including via the phone numbers and email addresses listed for each Asset, or via our secure online portal for Australia or The Americas. Both portals offer the option to raise feedback anonymously.

The contact details for our operational-level complaints and grievance mechanisms are: 

Western Australia ‒ Western Australia Iron Ore and Western Australia Nickel
Community contact line: 1800 421 077
wacommunity@bhp.com 

BHP Mitsubishi Alliance
Community contact line: 1800 078 797
coalcorporateaffairs@bhp.com 

Copper South Australia
Olympic Dam
Community contact line: 0886 718 888
OlympicDamCorporateAffairs@bhp.com 

Oak Dam
Community contact line: 1800 317 317
oakdam@bhp.com

Carrapateena and Prominent Hill
Carra.communities@bhp.com 
Prominenthill.community@bhp.com 

New South Wales Energy Coal
Community contact line: 1800 882 044
nswec.community@bhp.com

Escondida
Contacto.comunidades@bhp.com

Pampa Norte
contacto.cerrocolorado@bhp.com

Jansen potash project
BHP office: 306 385 8400
Potash.communityenquiry@bhp.com

Legacy assets
Communityconcerns.na@bhp.com

Community feedback process 

Footnote: 
As a company, we collect and process information to support stakeholder engagement activities and related activities, including complaints management. The data must only be used in compliance with applicable privacy laws, to ensure its lawful, fair and transparent processing under legitimate business interests, contractual obligations or explicit consent, as required.  

We only make data accessible to authorised personnel and seek to safeguard it against unauthorised use. We take steps to ensure information is retained only as long as necessary for its intended purpose and as outlined in our Privacy Policy.  

Sensitive data processing is subject to explicit notification and consent protocols. For more information refer to BHP’s Privacy policy. 

For more information, including your rights regarding personal data, contact the BHP Data Protection and Privacy Office at dataprivacy@bhp.com  

Our approach to local communities is supported by a suite of policies, standards and frameworks, including:

These documents set clear expectations for employees and contractors and provide the foundation for consistent implementation across our assets.

 

We identify and manage community-related risks through an integrated risk management and due diligence process consistent with our Risk Framework.

This includes:

  • identification of community, social and human rights risks and impacts
  • baseline studies and impact assessments
  • prioritisation of risks based on severity and likelihood
  • implementation of controls and mitigation measures
  • ongoing monitoring, review and improvement

Complaints, grievances and community impact events are tracked and analysed to inform risk management, identify trends and support continuous improvement in controls and mitigation measures.

 

We regularly assure our performance against our policies and standards, and develop improvement plans where necessary. 

We report annually on our community performance through our Annual Report, ESG Standards and Databook and Modern Slavery Statement.