PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mining major BHP is looking to stock its project pipeline.

In a speech delivered at the BMO Global Metals and Mining Conference, in the US, newly appointed CEO Mike Henry said that while the company was currently content with its portfolio, it would invest in "future facing commodities".

“Looking to the future though, I intend for BHP to deliver great value and returns to shareholders for decades to come. And this will require us to create and secure more options in future facing commodities. Options where we can deploy capital and capability to continue to grow value,” Henry said.

"These options will come from both within our existing footprint, as well as through securing more resources through exploration and early stage entry, all supported by our disciplined capital allocation framework.

“This effort will also help us address one of our other portfolio challenges. We have a good pipeline of high returning growth options on the five- to ten-year horizon. Beyond that, however, the cupboard starts to look a bit bare.

“We will secure more longer-term options and they will be aligned to future markets and demand. We will build upon our strong foundations and we will make the changes required to create a safe, lean, high performing and future-facing BHP.”

Henry told delegates that BHP’s current portfolio was resilient, containing big, low-cost assets in commodities within steep cost curves and with resilient near-term demand.

While offtake was fairly certain for BHP’s copper and iron-ore products, the miner also noted that metallurgical coal demand was expected to remain for the forseaable future, noting that BHP would focus on growing value within this division through creeping production and lowering costs.

Furthermore, the miner also believed that the outlook for oil demand would remain positive, with Henry saying the steep decline curves that were a feature of oil meant that ongoing global investment in new production would be required even if the decarbonisation trend accelerated and demand flattened or started to decline.