PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Major BHP has announced the appointment of its Australia president Edgar Basto as COO, effective from October 1.
Basto will be replaced as Australia president by Geraldine Slattery.
As COO, Basto will enable acceleration in safety and productivity improvement across the group, and will have accountability for the continued transformation of BHP through the embedment of the BHP operating system, and for BHP’s global performance and improvement and health, safety and environment functions.
Basto has been Minerals Australia president since May 2020, and has over 30 years of operating experience across BHP’s minerals footprint, including time as asset president of BHP’s two largest assets, Western Australia iron-ore and Escondida, and leading BHP’s global health, safety and environment team.
Slattery, for her part, will be responsible for BHP’s Australian operations.
From March 2019 until the completion of the Woodside merger in June this year, Slattery was president of BHP’s petroleum division and led BHP’s business which included oil and gas interests and development and exploration programmes in the US, Australia, Trinidad & Tobago, Algeria, Mexico and Canada.
Slattery has 28 years of operational and global leadership experience gained in the UK, Australia and the US.
“I am pleased to announce these new appointments. Safety and operational reliability are at the heart of value creation at BHP. These two appointments will enable us to build upon the strong performance we have delivered in recent years to drive even better safety and productivity outcomes,” BHP CEO Mike Henry said.
“Basto’s and Slattery’s particular experiences and capabilities as leaders, together with the newly created COO role, will ensure BHP is best placed to continue to operate reliably and deliver value in an increasingly complex and volatile world.”