BHP respects legally designated protected areas and commits to avoiding areas or activities where we consider the environmental risk is outside BHP’s risk appetite. These include:

• We do not explore or extract resources within the boundaries of World Heritage listed properties.
• We do not explore or extract resources adjacent to World Heritage listed properties, unless the proposed activity is compatible with the outstanding universal values for which the World Heritage property is listed.
• We do not explore or extract resources within or adjacent to the boundaries of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Protected Areas Categories I to IV, unless a plan is implemented that meets regulatory requirements, takes into account stakeholder expectations and contributes to the values for which the protected area is listed.
• We do not operate where there is a risk of direct impacts to ecosystems that could result in the extinction of an IUCN Red List Threatened Species in the wild.
• We do not dispose of mined waste rock or tailings into a river or marine environment.
  
  
   

The most significant air emissions across our portfolio of operated assets relate to emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and dust. For more information on GHG emissions see our Climate change webpage. We recognise the importance of managing and controlling the dust that mining operations can generate to avoid or minimise potential adverse impacts on air quality, health and the environment. The OR E&CC includes the requirement for operated assets that have identified the potential for significant air-related impacts on community wellbeing to develop an air quality management plan. The plan’s development must consider a stakeholder engagement strategy, dispersion modelling, targets, objectives and reporting.

We have implemented a number of actions to improve dust management at our operated assets. These include:

• At Western Australia Iron Ore (WAIO), we announced plans in FY2020 to invest up to a further A$300 million over five years to improve air quality and reduce dust emissions across our Pilbara operations. Studies have progressed to support future mine plans, including further optimisation of moisture management systems for ore conditioning at mines, and introducing new technologies, such as wind fences for reducing dust generation at the port.
• For the BHP Mitsubishi Alliance, we are developing an air quality framework for all our operated mines, focusing on improving real-time air quality monitoring and dust management controls to contribute to our proactive site operational measures.
• In Chile, we are implementing an air quality strategy for all our operated mines, focusing on real-time air quality and health exposure monitoring, dust management control improvements, modelling and forecasting of air quality conditions and dust analytics.
• At Nickel West, we are implementing an  asset-level air quality management plan that focuses on air quality risk identification and management. This will enable improved operational controls to mitigate potential air quality risks across the Nickel West mining and processing operations.

Resource extraction and processing can generate large amounts of waste depending on the mineral geology, mining or extraction method and extent of processing applied to produce our products to the specifications our customers require. We are committed to continually improving our practices to minimise waste generation, increase recycling and repurposing of materials, and prevent pollution through proper disposal. 

We broadly define waste from resource extraction into two main categories: mineral and non-mineral waste. These are further split into hazardous and non-hazardous streams, which are usually defined by local legislation. 

Mineral waste includes waste from raw or intermediate materials, such as mineral ore that has been processed as part of the production sequence. We process some of our ores to increase the concentration of target minerals or remove unwanted components using processes such as beneficiation, refining and smelting. These processes generate mineral waste streams, such as tailings, waste rock, slimes, sludge, residues, slag, fly ash and gypsum or coal rejects. 

Non-mineral waste includes waste that does not arise from minerals extraction and processing, but arises from our overall activities, such as packaging, lubricants, scrap metal and food waste from mining camps. 
Mineral waste, including tailings, is the waste stream we focus on in our Group-level ESG Standards and Databook given it is the most significant waste for us in terms of the volume we generate. We also monitor and report hazardous waste streams (mineral and non-mineral), as required by local or national legislation. 

While we focus on waste-related impacts related to our operations, we also recognise the potential downstream impacts of some of our products, for example uranium. Australian uranium is sold for nuclear power generation only and therefore waste associated with its use is disposed under specific local government regulation.

All waste streams (including waste from BHP operations that is managed by a third party) are required to be managed to the higher of applicable BHP internal global standards, such as the OR E&CC, or the local legislative requirements.

We have recently reviewed our waste reporting and expect to report additional waste data for our operated assets to align with GRI 306 Waste and SASB Metals and Mining requirements. We plan to start disclosing that data in our FY2024 reporting. 

An example of our commitment to continuous improvement in relation to waste management is our joint funding of the Future Tails program, which we launched in June 2020 in partnership with Rio Tinto and the University of Western Australia. Over five years, we will invest A$2 million to fund a program of training, research and education to establish industry-wide best practice of waste management and tailings storage facilities.

We look beyond our operational footprint for nature-positive opportunities to contribute to environmental resilience on other land we steward, mostly retained as exploration tenements or leased for pastoral use, as well as ‘outside the fence’ at landscape-scales, and seek to work with others to collectively solve shared environmental challenges, as outlined in our Water Stewardship Position Statement and our Climate Transition Action Plan 2021. 

We recognise BHP can engage across communities, government, business and civil society with the aim of encouraging actions to improve natural resources governance and advance sustainable solutions for the natural environment. We aim to do this through our individual company actions, as well as by promoting the adoption of industry best practice through industry associations we belong to, such as the International Council on Mining and Metals and the CEO Water Mandate.