BHP is a major company in Australia. Its full name is BHP Group Limited. Although it is based in Australia, the company also has business interests in a number of other countries. BHP’s main areas of activity include the mining and processing of coal, metals, and potash. BHP traces its origin back to two earlier companies, Billiton and the Broken Hill Proprietary Company (also known as BHP).
Billiton was formed in the Netherlands in 1860. It was named for Billiton island in the Dutch East Indies (now Belitung island in Indonesia), which the company acquired because of the island’s rich tin reserves. Billiton had tin- and lead-smelting operations in the Netherlands, and it eventually acquired bauxite mines in Indonesia and Suriname. Billiton changed hands a number of times during the late 1900’s. For example, it was acquired by the Royal Dutch/Shell Group in 1970, and then by Gencor, a South African mining company, in 1994. It also expanded, gaining operations in Africa, the Americas, and Australia. From 1997, Billiton was an independent company based in the United Kingdom.
The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was incorporated in 1885 to exploit deposits of lead, silver, and zinc ores at what is now Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. The company later established a lead-smelting plant at Port Pirie, South Australia. Following the discovery of an iron ore deposit at Iron Monarch, near the Middleback Ranges in South Australia, the company became involved in steelmaking. It opened its first steelmaking plant at Newcastle, New South Wales, in 1915. In 1935, it took over Australian Iron & Steel Limited.
Billiton and the Broken Hill Proprietary Company merged in 2001 to form BHP Billiton. Since then, the company has undergone many changes in its assets and operations, organization, and name. It adopted its current name—BHP Group Limited—in 2022.
