The BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) share price is in focus after the company announced its FY26 result with significant profit growth.
BHP is one of the world’s biggest miners which produces iron ore, copper and coal. It’s the world’s largest copper-producing company.
FY26 result
Here are the highlights for the 12 months to 30 June 2026:
- Revenue grew 15% to US$58.8 billion
- Underlying EBITDA (EBITDA explained) grew 27% to US$32.9 billion
- Profit from operations increased 23% to US$23.9 billion
- Underlying attributable profit grew 30% to US$13.2 billion
- Attributable (statutory) profit rose 9% to US$9.8 billion
- Operating cashflow up 17% to US$21.8 billion
- Free cashflow soared 83% to US$9.8 billion
- Final dividend per share of US$0.99, up 65%
- Full-year dividend per share of US$1.72, up 56%
What happened in this report?
There are two main drivers of the business – copper and iron ore, so we’ll start there.
Copper
BHP reported that its copper production decreased by 3% to 1,953kt.
However, its average realised price for the copper soared 35% to US$5.74 per pound. The ASX mining share said that the copper price continues to be supported by strong fundamentals on the demand and supply side, driven by demand aspects such as electrification, data centres and the risk of future supply deficits.
The rise in the copper price helped underlying EBITDA soar 48% to US$18.2 billion. This contributed 54% of BHP’s overall underlying EBITDA.
Iron ore
The ASX mining share announced that production increased by 1% to 265mt.
The average realised price for its Western Australian Iron Ore business rose 3% to US$84.56 per wet metric tonne (wmt). The price was supported by resilient iron ore demand in China.
However, underlying EBITDA only grew by 1% to US$14.5 billion, contributing 43% of the group’s total operating profit.
There were elevated costs for energy and freight due to the Middle East impacting costs.
Other resources
Steelmaking coal saw 3% production growth to 18.6mt, with the average realised price rising 8% to US$210.21 per tonne.
Energy coal production grew 9% to 16.4mt, with the average realised price decreasing by 3% to US$104.28 per tonne.
Indian pig iron production growth remained robust, sustaining the country’s position as the largest seaborne steelmaking coal importer.
Coal underlying EBITDA jumped 45% to US$0.83 billion, contributing 3% of the total underlying EBITDA.
The Jansen potash project continues to make progress. Its capital and exploration expenditure increased to US$1.8 billion in FY26, up from US$1.6 billion in FY25. The estimate for FY27’s expenditure is around US$2 billion.
BHP spent around US$408 million on mineral exploration and early-stage entry across the business, with the focus being new copper resources that meet clear value thresholds.
Outlook for the BHP share price
The business expects copper demand to remain attractive in the years to come, with copper demand expected to grow from around 34mt per year today to more than 50mt per year by 2050.
Copper demand is expected to grow due to typical economic growth (such as homes and appliances), the energy transition, AI and data centres.
BHP aims to grow its iron ore production to more than 305mt per year by the fourth quarter of FY28 and sustain that level of the medium-term, while reducing unit costs to less than US$19 per tonne. BHP aims to invest in its infrastructure and operations to lower costs.
With the company’s ongoing focus on expanding its production in copper, I think it has a promising future.
However, this doesn’t seem like the best time to invest considering the BHP share price is up 50% in the past year. I’d suggest looking at ASX mining shares when the commodity price is weak – copper and iron are both at strong points.
For me, there are plenty of other ASX dividend shares that are more appealing.
