78-541: The Musgrave Block (also known as the Musgrave Province) is an east-west trending belt of Proterozoic granulite - gneiss basement rocks approximately 500 kilometres (310 mi) long. The Musgrave Block extends from western South Australia into Western Australia . The Musgrave Block is primarily exposed through the actions of the Petermann Orogeny at c. 535-550 Ma, which exhumed the orogenic belt along
156-472: A $ 9.6 billion deal. In fiscal year 2021-2022, BHP's annual profit amounted to more than $ 34 billion (an increase of 34%) of $ 65 billion (an increase of 14%). The coal division's profits reached almost $ 9 billion (a loss of $ 577 million in 2022), with the BHP's iron ore division making $ 21.7 billion (a decrease of $ 4.6 billion since 2022). Profit growth allowed the company to pay a record dividend of $ 7.6 billion for
234-606: A 50/50 joint venture to hold the Filo del Sol (FDS) and Josemaria projects. Until January 2022, BHP was a dual-listed company ; the Australian BHP Billiton Limited and the British BHP Billiton plc were separately listed with separate shareholder bodies, while conducting business as one operation with identical boards of directors and a single management structure. The headquarters of BHP Billiton Limited and
312-467: A 70-ton commemorative sculpture, The Muster Point , was installed on Industrial Drive, in the suburb of Mayfield, New South Wales . The long products side of the steel business was spun off to form OneSteel in 2000. In the 1950s, BHP began petroleum exploration, which became an increasing focus following oil and natural gas discoveries in Bass Strait in the 1960s. BHP began to diversify into
390-554: A Canadian company, was one of three bidders for the mine, tendering the lowest offer, and returned the mine to production in 2011. Ravensthorpe cost BHP US$ 3.6 billion in write-downs when it was shut in January 2009 after less than a year of production. In January 2010, following the BHP Billiton purchase of Athabasca Potash for US$ 320m, The Economist reported that, by 2020, BHP Billiton could produce approximately 15 per cent of
468-451: A Queensland fertiliser plant. The takeover achieved 90 per cent acceptance on 17 June 2005, and 100 per cent ownership was announced on 2 August 2005, achieved through compulsory acquisition of the remaining 10 per cent of the shares. On 8 November 2007, BHP Billiton announced it was seeking to purchase rival mining group Rio Tinto Group in an all-share deal. The initial offer of 3.4 shares of BHP Billiton stock for each share of Rio Tinto
546-572: A few billion years in age. It is believed that 43% of modern continental crust was formed in the Proterozoic, 39% formed in the Archean, and only 18% in the Phanerozoic . Studies by Condie (2000) and Rino et al. (2004) harvp error: no target: CITEREFRinoKomiyaWindleyet_al2004 ( help ) suggest that crust production happened episodically. By isotopically calculating the ages of Proterozoic granitoids it
624-477: A few plausible models that explain tectonics of the early Earth prior to the formation of Columbia, but the current most plausible hypothesis is that prior to Columbia, there were only a few independent cratons scattered around the Earth (not necessarily a supercontinent, like Rodinia or Columbia). The Proterozoic can be roughly divided into seven biostratigraphic zones which correspond to informal time periods. The first
702-694: A fine of $ 25 million to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in 2015 in connection with violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act related to its "hospitality program" at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing . BHP Billiton invited 176 government and state-owned-enterprise officials to attend the Games on an all-expenses-paid package. While BHP Billiton claimed to have compliance processes in place to avoid conflicts of interest,
780-545: A freeze on approving any major new expansion projects. Days after announcing the Olympic Dam pull-out, BHP Billiton announced that it was selling its Yeelirrie Uranium Project to Canadian Cameco for a fee of around $ 430 million. The sale was part of a broader move to step away from resource expansion in Australia. On 19 August 2014, BHP Billiton announced it would create an independent global metals and mining company based on
858-408: A major workers' strike and forced the company to declare force majeure on two shipments, which drove copper prices up by 4%. In April 2017 activist hedge fund manager Elliott Advisors proposed a plan for BHP Billiton to spin off its American petroleum assets and significantly restructure the business, including the scrapping of its dual Sydney-London listing, suggesting shares be offered only in
SECTION 10
#1732855155348936-520: A period of increasing crustal recycling, suggesting subduction . Evidence for this increased subduction activity comes from the abundance of old granites originating mostly after 2.6 Ga . The occurrence of eclogite (a type of metamorphic rock created by high pressure, > 1 GPa), is explained using a model that incorporates subduction. The lack of eclogites that date to the Archean Eon suggests that conditions at that time did not favor
1014-558: A potential source for the Tollu Volcanics. The caldera is truncated on the north by a north-dipping thrust fault and is probably tilted to the south. Several other prominent gravity and magnetic highs are arranged along the Mugrave Block strike line, one of which was drilled by BHP in the 1990s through 300m of Permian glacial sediments. This caldera is composed of highly tectonised, stretched felsic volcanic rocks, interleaved with
1092-639: A record high of A$ 48.90 following speculation that Chinese mining firm Chinalco was considering purchasing a large stake. As global nickel prices fell, on 25 November 2008, Billiton announced that it would drop its A$ 66 billion takeover of rival Rio Tinto Group, stating that the "risks to shareholder value" would "increase" to "an unacceptable level" due to the 2007–2008 financial crisis . On 21 January 2009, BHP Billiton then announced that Ravensthorpe Nickel Mine in Western Australia would cease operations, ending shipments of ore from Ravensthorpe to
1170-645: A selection of its aluminium, coal, manganese, nickel, and silver assets. The newly formed entity, named South32 , was subsequently demerged with listings on the Australian Securities Exchange the JSE and the London Stock Exchange . In 2015, BHP Billiton spun off a number of its subsidiaries in South Africa and Southern Africa to form a new company known as South32. BHP Billiton agreed to pay
1248-527: A significant thickness of equally sheared titaniferous differentiated mafic sills . The best interpretation of this, and probably also of the Palgrave Caldera is that they represent hot spots along the Musgrave Block where significant magma flux penetrated, formed volcanic calderas with large subvolcanic granite intrusions, and associated mafic volcanism. The relationship of the large granite calderas to
1326-462: A solely Australian Securities Exchange-listed company. As of 2022, BHP is the largest company in Australia, and the largest mining company in the world, both as measured by market capitalisation. In 2023, the company's position in the Forbes Global 2000 was 90th. Billiton Maatschappij was founded 29 September 1860, when its articles of association were approved by a meeting of shareholders in
1404-513: A steelworks at Newcastle was due to the technical limitations in recovering value from mining the lower-lying sulphide ores. The discovery of Iron Knob and Iron Monarch near the western shore of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia , combined with the refinement, by BHP metallurgists A. D. Carmichael and Leslie Bradford , of the froth flotation technique for separating zinc sulphides from
1482-540: A tin smelting and refining plant in Phuket , Thailand, named Thaisarco (for Thailand Smelting And Refining Company, Limited). In 1994, South Africa's Gencor acquired the mining division of Billiton excluding the downstream metal division. Billiton was divested from Gencor in 1997, and was amalgamated with Gold Fields in 1998. In 1997, Billiton plc became a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index and in 2001 Billiton plc merged with
1560-790: A variety of mining projects overseas. Those included the Ok Tedi copper mine in Papua New Guinea, where the company was successfully sued by the indigenous inhabitants because of the environmental degradation caused by mining operations. BHP had better success with the giant Escondida copper mine in Chile, of which it owns 57.5%, and at the Ekati Diamond Mine in northern Canada, which BHP contracted for in 1996, began mining in 1998, and sold its 80% stake in to Dominion Diamond Corporation in 2013 as production declined. In 2001, BHP merged with
1638-819: A year over 10 years to develop the field and triple production. On 14 July 2011, BHP Billiton announced that it would acquire Petrohawk Energy of the United States for approximately $ 12.1 billion in cash, considerably expanding its shale natural gas resources in an offer of $ US38.75 per share. On 22 August 2012, BHP Billiton announced that it was delaying its US$ 20 billion (£12 billion) Olympic Dam copper mine expansion project in South Australia to study less capital intensive options, deferring its dual harbour strategy at West Australian Iron Ore and slowing down its Potash growth option in Canada. The company simultaneously announced
SECTION 20
#17328551553481716-529: Is a large volcanic and granite caldera edifice of about 1500 square kilometres sandwiched between the Jameson Range Intrusion and the gneisses underlying the Bentley Supergroup volcanics. The caldera is in two parts, an overlying volcanic edifice composed primarily of porphyritic rhyolite and dacite with occasional vent complex agglomerates, which shows prominent circular ring-complex faults, and
1794-564: Is composed primarily of bimodal volcanism , with several hundred-metres thicknesses each of alternating rhyolite and basaltic volcanism adding up to several kilometres true thickness in the area of the Warburton Range to the southwest of the Palgrave caldera. The Bentley Supergroup is divided into the Cassidy Group, Pussycat Group and Tollu Group. The prevailing theory of the formation of
1872-482: Is rare, restricted primarily to the igneous rocks of the Giles Complex and several granite domes , gneiss domes and isolated outcrops. This area is also a distinct physiographic province of the larger West Australian Shield . Several Palaeozoic to neoproterozoic sedimentary basins onlap the Musgrave Block, and are exposed mostly around its edges. These were derived from erosion of the Musgrave Block basement during
1950-626: Is the third of the four geologic eons of Earth's history , spanning the time interval from 2500 to 538.8 Mya , the longest eon of the Earth's geologic time scale . It is preceded by the Archean and followed by the Phanerozoic , and is the most recent part of the Precambrian "supereon". The Proterozoic is subdivided into three geologic eras (from oldest to youngest): the Paleoproterozoic , Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic . It covers
2028-784: The Groot Keizershof hotel in The Hague , Netherlands. Two months later, the company acquired mineral rights to the Billiton ( Belitung ) and Bangka Islands in the Netherlands Indies archipelago off the eastern coast of Sumatra . Billiton's initial ventures included tin and lead smelting in the Netherlands, followed in the 1940s by bauxite mining in Indonesia and Suriname . In 1970, Shell acquired Billiton. Billiton opened
2106-413: The 1050-1080 Ma volcanics has been postulated as one in which the granite calderas were the source for the intermediate and felsic volcanic rocks. The Bentley Supergroup Volcanics are a sequence of bimodal supracrustal volcanic rocks formed during the ~1080 Warakurna Large Igneous Province, and are widely considered comagmatic with the mafic to ultramafic Giles Complex intrusions. The Bentley Supergroup
2184-600: The Bentley Supergroup is that the Warakurna Large Igneous Province, primarily represented by the Giles Complex intruding into the lower crust, breached the crust and erupted voluminous basaltic lava flows, and when enough heat had been added to the crust by the massive intrusions below, intracrustal felsic and intermediate melts were produced, forming A-type intracontinental granites of the Winburn Suite, and
2262-462: The Billiton mining company to form BHP Billiton. In 2002, flat steel products were demerged to form the publicly traded company BHP Steel which, in 2003, became BlueScope . In March 2005, BHP Billiton announced a US$ 7.3 billion agreed bid for WMC Resources , owners of the Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium mine in South Australia, nickel operations in Western Australia and Queensland, and
2340-562: The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP) to form BHP Billiton. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP), also known by the nickname "the Big Australian", was incorporated on 13 August 1885, operating the silver and lead mine at Broken Hill , in western New South Wales , Australia. The Broken Hill group floated on 10 August 1885. The first consignment of Broken Hill ore (48 tons, 5 cwt, 3grs)
2418-813: The Ediacaran, proving that multicellular life had already become widespread tens of millions of years before the Cambrian Explosion in what is known as the Avalon Explosion . Nonetheless, the upper boundary of the Proterozoic has remained fixed at the base of the Cambrian , which is currently placed at 538.8 Ma. BHP BHP Group Limited , formerly known as BHP Billiton , is an Australian multinational mining and metals public company headquartered in Melbourne , Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company
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2496-617: The Musgrave Block is as part of a time-space plot in which geological events are arrayed in time against rock units, stratigraphic relationships and for correlative purposes. The key events in the Musgrave Block are: There are three main phases of granite intrusion into the Musgrave Block: The Kulgera Suite is a widespread, voluminous suite of fractionated amphibole-bearing plagioclase rich tonalite to granodiorites of an I-type affinity (Stewart, 2003). They are dated at ~1200 Ma and are considered to be related to melting of
2574-717: The Neoproterozoic Era at the end of the Proterozoic Eon, possibly climaxing with the hypothesized Snowball Earth of the Sturtian and Marinoan glaciations. One of the most important events of the Proterozoic was the accumulation of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. Though oxygen is believed to have been released by photosynthesis as far back as the Archean Eon, it could not build up to any significant degree until mineral sinks of unoxidized sulfur and iron had been exhausted. Until roughly 2.3 billion years ago, oxygen
2652-577: The Palaeoproterozoic or Mesoproterozoic, according to molecular data. Classically, the boundary between the Proterozoic and the Phanerozoic eons was set at the base of the Cambrian Period when the first fossils of animals, including trilobites and archeocyathids , as well as the animal-like Caveasphaera , appeared. In the second half of the 20th century, a number of fossil forms have been found in Proterozoic rocks, particularly in ones from
2730-457: The SEC found that BHP Billiton had invited officials from at least four countries where BHP Billiton had interests in influencing the officials' decisions ( Congo , Guinea , Philippines and Burundi ). In August 2016, BHP Billiton recorded its worst annual loss in history, $ 6.4 billion. Towards the end of 2016 BHP Billiton indicated it would expand its petroleum business and make new investments in
2808-651: The Tollu Volcanics to the Bentley Supergroup. There has been little real study done on the Bentley Supergroup Volcanics since the 1960s. Geochemical and petrological observations are few and far between or lacking comprehensive rare earth and trace elements suites. The Bentley Supergoup is poorly exposed in South Australia (if at all). Proterozoic The Proterozoic ( IPA : / ˌ p r oʊ t ər ə ˈ z oʊ ɪ k , ˌ p r ɒ t -, - ər oʊ -, - t r ə -, - t r oʊ -/ PROH -tər-ə- ZOH -ik, PROT-, -ər-oh-, -trə-, -troh- )
2886-575: The United Kingdom, while leaving its headquarters and tax residences in Australia where shares would trade as depository instruments. At the time of the correspondence Elliott held about 4.1 per cent of the issued shares in London-listed BHP Billiton plc, worth $ 3.81 billion. Australia's government warned it would block moves to shift BHP Billiton's stock listing from Australia to the United Kingdom. Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison said
2964-550: The Winburn Granite which underlies the caldera and is primarily exposed in the east as a pink, potassium-feldspathic porphyry granite, the lower margins of which are weakly tectonised. The whole caldera edifice is tilted to the southwest, which is why the Winburn Granite is exposed along the east and northeast. The Skirmish Hill Caldera is poorly exposed along the southern margin of the Musgrave Block and consists of granite and overlying? rhyolite. It has been traditionally seen as
3042-560: The Woodroffe Thrust. The Musgrave Block is currently passive geologically, with surficial processes described as residual erosion. The area currently experiences on average less than 150mm (6 inches) of rainfall per annum, which provides little surface runoff and hence virtually no erosion. The landforms of the area are primarily composed of wide calcrete plains, often covered by Pleistocene Age aeolian deposits of sand dunes, sometimes reworked into ephemeral sheetwash fans. Outcrop
3120-823: The Yabulu nickel plant in Queensland Australia. Yabulu refinery was subsequently sold to Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer , becoming the Palmer Nickel and Cobalt Refinery . Pinto Valley mine in the United States was also closed. Mine closures and general scaling back during the 2007–2008 financial crisis accounted for 6,000 employee lay offs. As the nickel market became saturated by both spiraling economics and cheaper extraction methods; on 9 December 2009, BHP Billiton sold its Ravensthorpe Nickel Mine , which had cost A$ 2.4 billion to build, to Vancouver -based First Quantum Minerals for US$ 340 million. First Quantum,
3198-474: The accompanying gangue and subsequent conversion (Carmichael–Bradford process) to oxides of the metal, allowed BHP to economically extract valuable metals from the heaps of tailings up to 40 feet (12 m) high at the mine site. In 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy targeted the BHP steelworks during the largely unsuccessful shelling of Newcastle . Newcastle operations were closed in 1999, and
Musgrave Block - Misplaced Pages Continue
3276-480: The breakup of the supercontinent Columbia and prior to the assemblage of the supercontinent Gondwana (~500 Ma). The defining orogenic event associated with the formation of Gondwana was the collision of Africa, South America, Antarctica and Australia forming the Pan-African orogeny . Columbia was dominant in the early-mid Proterozoic and not much is known about continental assemblages before then. There are
3354-493: The company. Anderson successfully completed the four-year project with a merger between BHP and London-based Billiton. In July 2002, Brian Gilbertson of Billiton was appointed CEO, but resigned after just six months, citing irreconcilable differences with the board. Upon Gilbertson's departure in early 2003, Chip Goodyear was appointed the new CEO, increasing sales by 47 per cent and profits by 78 per cent during his tenure. Goodyear retired on 30 September 2007. Marius Kloppers
3432-516: The deciphering of Precambrian Supereon tectonics. It is known that tectonic processes of the Proterozoic Eon resemble greatly the evidence of tectonic activity, such as orogenic belts or ophiolite complexes, we see today. Hence, most geologists would conclude that the Earth was active at that time. It is also commonly accepted that during the Precambrian, the Earth went through several supercontinent breakup and rebuilding cycles ( Wilson cycle ). In
3510-454: The dominating W. R. Wilson had had to lend William Jamieson , General Manager, a new suit so he could take the first prospectus, printed at Silverton near Broken Hill on 20 June 1885, to Adelaide to start the float process. The geographic Broken Hill, for which the town was named, was discovered and named by Captain Charles Sturt , stirring great interest among prospectors. Nothing of note
3588-538: The ensuing months of fruitless search, three of the original seven (now remembered as the Syndicate of Seven ) sold their shares, so that, on the eve of the company's great success, there were nine shareholders, including Rasp, McCulloch, Philip Charly (aka Charley), David James, James Poole (five of the original syndicate of seven, which had previously included George Urquhart and G.A.M. Lind), Bowes Kelly, W. R. Wilson, and William Jamieson (who had bought shares from several of
3666-426: The eon continued the massive continental accretion that had begun late in the Archean Eon. The Proterozoic Eon also featured the first definitive supercontinent cycles and wholly modern mountain building activity ( orogeny ). There is evidence that the first known glaciations occurred during the Proterozoic. The first began shortly after the beginning of the Proterozoic Eon, and evidence of at least four during
3744-733: The evolution of eukaryotes via symbiogenesis ; several global glaciations , which produced the 300 million years-long Huronian glaciation (during the Siderian and Rhyacian periods of the Paleoproterozoic) and the hypothesized Snowball Earth (during the Cryogenian period in the late Neoproterozoic); and the Ediacaran period (635–538.8 Ma ), which is characterized by the evolution of abundant soft-bodied multicellular organisms such as sponges , algae , cnidarians , bilaterians and
3822-548: The felsic volcanic rocks. This created the typical bimodal volcanic signature of the Cassidy Group and Pussycat Groups; the Tollu Group is a bit different, and it is considered the product of the large granite calderas which were formed immediately after the Giles Complex magmatism. Giles (1980) and earlier mappers have assigned the MacDougall Formation, overlying Mummawarrawarra Basalt, intermediate Smoke Hill Volcanics and
3900-664: The first half of the Ediacaran from 0.63–0.55 Ga, and the Belomorian, spanning from 0.55–0.542 Ga. The emergence of advanced single-celled eukaryotes began after the Oxygen Catastrophe . This may have been due to an increase in the oxidized nitrates that eukaryotes use, as opposed to cyanobacteria . It was also during the Proterozoic that the first symbiotic relationships between mitochondria (found in nearly all eukaryotes) and chloroplasts (found in plants and some protists only) and their hosts evolved. By
3978-419: The formation of high grade metamorphism and therefore did not achieve the same levels of subduction as was occurring in the Proterozoic Eon. As a result of remelting of basaltic oceanic crust due to subduction, the cores of the first continents grew large enough to withstand the crustal recycling processes. The long-term tectonic stability of those cratons is why we find continental crust ranging up to
SECTION 50
#17328551553484056-543: The founders). John Darling, Jr. became a director of the company in 1892 and was chairman of directors from 1907 to 1914. Strongly encouraged by the New South Wales Minister for Public Works, Arthur Hill Griffith , in 1915, the company ventured into steel manufacturing, with its operations based primarily at the Newcastle Steelworks . The decision to move from mining ore at Broken Hill to opening
4134-602: The global headquarters of the combined group were located in Melbourne , Australia. The headquarters of BHP Billiton plc were located in London, England. Its main office locations were in Australia, the U.S., Canada, the UK, Chile, Malaysia, and Singapore. The company's shares traded on the following exchanges: BHP Billiton Limited and BHP Billiton plc were renamed BHP Group Limited and BHP Group plc, respectively, on 19 November 2018. In 1998, BHP hired American Paul Anderson to restructure
4212-511: The global investment community. On 22 February 2011, BHP Billiton announced that it had paid $ 4.75 billion in cash to Chesapeake Energy for its Fayetteville shale assets, which include 487,000 acres (1,970 km ) of mineral rights leases and 420 miles (680 km) of pipeline located in north central Arkansas . The wells on the mineral leases are currently producing about 415 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. BHP Billiton planned to spend $ 800 million to $ 1 billion
4290-611: The half-year ending December 31. BHP made an offer to acquire Anglo American for £31 billion in April 2024; however, the offer was rejected by the Anglo American as "highly unattractive". A revised offer was also rejected in May 2024. In July 2024, BHP and Lundin Mining agreed to jointly acquire 100% of Filo Corp. through a Canadian plan of arrangement. BHP and Lundin Mining also agreed to form
4368-594: The late Palaeoproterozoic, eukaryotic organisms had become moderately biodiverse. The blossoming of eukaryotes such as acritarchs did not preclude the expansion of cyanobacteria – in fact, stromatolites reached their greatest abundance and diversity during the Proterozoic, peaking roughly 1.2 billion years ago. The earliest fossils possessing features typical of fungi date to the Paleoproterozoic Era, some 2.4 billion years ago; these multicellular benthic organisms had filamentous structures capable of anastomosis . The Viridiplantae evolved sometime in
4446-419: The late Proterozoic (most recent), the dominant supercontinent was Rodinia (~1000–750 Ma). It consisted of a series of continents attached to a central craton that forms the core of the North American Continent called Laurentia . An example of an orogeny (mountain building processes) associated with the construction of Rodinia is the Grenville orogeny located in Eastern North America. Rodinia formed after
4524-441: The latter is perhaps created by the above process, and the earlier suite a hybrid between A-type and I-type granites formed by assimilation and mixing. There are also significant granite caldera complexes, of many hundred square kilometres in area, which intrude the Musgrave Block. These are of the ~1050 Ma age, and are subvolcanic , possibly related to some of the ~1050 Ma volcanic rocks. The Palgrave Palgrave Volcanic Association
4602-489: The lower crust during the ~1200 Ma Musgravian Orogeny. The Windburn Suite is considered to be an anorogenic A-type granite suite produced by anatexis of the lower crust at ~1080 to 1050 Ma by the injection of the mafic Giles Complex intrusions. They are in most cases poorly fractionated, biotite-muscovite granites, with little hornblende, a high radiometric count and the presence of fluorine. The 1080 Ma granites and 1050 Ma granites can be distinguished on geochemical grounds,
4680-450: The move would be contrary to the country's national interest and would breach government orders mandating a listing on the Australian Securities Exchange. BHP Billiton dismissed the plan saying the costs and risks of Elliott's proposal outweighed any potential benefits. In May 2017, with much of the former Billiton assets having been disposed of, BHP Billiton began to rebrand itself as BHP, at first in Australia and then globally. It replaced
4758-418: The neoproterozoic to Permian. The Proterozoic of the Musgrave Block is composed of seven main classes of rocks: The Musgrave Block is flanked by several Proterozoic to Palaeozoic sedimentary basins, whose sedimentary history can elucidate the timing of tectonic events in the Musgrave Block post-1080 Ma. These include the Proterozoic Amadeus and Officer Basins . The most illustrating way of considering
SECTION 60
#17328551553484836-493: The sale of its Fayetteville Onshore US gas assets to a wholly owned subsidiary of Merit Energy Company. In August 2021, BHP announced plans to exit the oil and gas industry by merging its hydrocarbon business with Woodside Energy , Australia's largest independent gas producer. It also announced its intention to delist from the London Stock Exchange and consolidate on the Australian Securities Exchange . This occurred in January 2022. In April 2023, BHP took over Oz Minerals in
4914-450: The sector. In February 2017, BHP Billiton announced a $ 2.2 billion investment in the new BP platform in the Gulf of Mexico . During the same year, as part of their plan to increase productivity at the Escondida mine in Chile, which is the world's biggest copper mine, BHP Billiton attempted to get workers to accept a 4-year pay freeze, a 66% reduction in the end-of-conflict bonus offering, and increased shift flexibility. This resulted in
4992-554: The sessile Ediacaran biota (some of which had evolved sexual reproduction ) and provides the first obvious fossil evidence of life on Earth . The geologic record of the Proterozoic Eon is more complete than that for the preceding Archean Eon. In contrast to the deep-water deposits of the Archean, the Proterozoic features many strata that were laid down in extensive shallow epicontinental seas ; furthermore, many of those rocks are less metamorphosed than Archean rocks, and many are unaltered. Studies of these rocks have shown that
5070-471: The slogan "The Big Australian" with "Think Big", with an advertising campaign rolling out in mid May 2017. Work on the change began in late 2015 according to BHP's chief external affairs officer. In August 2017, BHP announced that it would sell off its US shale oil and gas business. In July 2018, the company agreed to sell its shale assets to BP for $ 10.5 billion. BHP indicated its intention to return funds to investors. On 29 September 2018, BHP completed
5148-420: The time from the appearance of free oxygen in Earth's atmosphere to just before the proliferation of complex life on the Earth during the Cambrian Explosion . The name Proterozoic combines two words of Greek origin: protero- meaning "former, earlier", and -zoic , meaning "of life". Well-identified events of this eon were the transition to an oxygenated atmosphere during the Paleoproterozoic;
5226-427: The time was virtually all obligate anaerobic . A second, later surge in oxygen concentrations is called the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event , occurred during the Middle and Late Neoproterozoic and drove the rapid evolution of multicellular life towards the end of the era. The Proterozoic Eon was a very tectonically active period in the Earth's history. The late Archean Eon to Early Proterozoic Eon corresponds to
5304-466: The world demand for potash . In August 2010, BHP Billiton made a hostile takeover bid worth US$ 40 billion for PotashCorp . The bid came after BHP's first bid, made on 17 August, was rejected as being undervalued. This acquisition marked a major strategic move by BHP outside hard commodities and commenced the diversification of its business away from resources with high exposure to carbon price risk, like coal, petroleum and iron ore. The takeover bid
5382-444: Was determined that there were several episodes of rapid increase in continental crust production. The reason for these pulses is unknown, but they seemed to have decreased in magnitude after every period. Evidence of collision and rifting between continents raises the question as to what exactly were the movements of the Archean cratons composing Proterozoic continents. Paleomagnetic and geochronological dating mechanisms have allowed
5460-430: Was discovered until 5 November 1883, when Charles Rasp , boundary rider for the surrounding Mount Gipps Station , pegged out a 40-acre claim with contractors David James and James Poole. Together with a half-dozen backers , including station manager George McCulloch (a young cousin of Victorian Premier Sir James McCulloch ), Rasp formed the Broken Hill Company staking out the entire Hill. As costs mounted during
5538-534: Was formed in 2001 through the merger of the Australian Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP) and the Anglo–Dutch Billiton plc trading on both the Australian and London Stock Exchanges as a dual-listed company . In 2015, some BHP Billiton assets were demerged and rebranded as South32 , while a scaled-down BHP Billiton became BHP. In 2018, BHP Billiton Limited and BHP Billiton plc became BHP Group Limited and BHP Group plc, respectively. In January 2022, BHP relinquished its London Stock Exchange listing, becoming
5616-501: Was founded on 16 July 1885 in the mining town of Silverton, New South Wales . As of 2024, BHP was the world’s largest mining company by market capitalization and the world’s third-largest by revenue . Total iron ore revenue for the company increased by US$ 3.1 billion to US$ 28.0 billion in Fiscal Year 2024, accounting for 50.2% of the company’s revenue, while copper and coal contributed 33.4% and 13.8%, respectively. BHP Billiton
5694-537: Was opposed by the Government of Saskatchewan under Premier Brad Wall . On 3 November, Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement announced the preliminary rejection of the deal under the Investment Canada Act , giving BHP Billiton 30 days to refine their deal before a final decision was made; BHP withdrew its offer on 14 November 2010. Canada's decision to block the deal was generally viewed as surprising by
5772-501: Was probably due to two factors: Exhaustion of the chemical sinks, and an increase in carbon sequestration , which sequestered organic compounds that would have otherwise been oxidized by the atmosphere. The first surge in atmospheric oxygen at the beginning of the Proterozoic is called the Great Oxygenation Event , or alternately the Oxygen Catastrophe – to reflect the mass extinction of almost all life on Earth, which at
5850-487: Was probably only 1% to 2% of its current level. The banded iron formations , which provide most of the world's iron ore , are one mark of that mineral sink process. Their accumulation ceased after 1.9 billion years ago, after the iron in the oceans had all been oxidized . Red beds , which are colored by hematite , indicate an increase in atmospheric oxygen 2 billion years ago. Such massive iron oxide formations are not found in older rocks. The oxygen buildup
5928-433: Was rejected by the board of Rio Tinto for "significantly undervaluing" the company. It was unknown at the time whether BHP Billiton would attempt to purchase Rio Tinto through some form of hostile takeover . A formal hostile bid of 3.4 BHP Billiton shares for each Rio Tinto share was announced on 6 February 2008; The bid was withdrawn 25 November 2008 due to global recession . On 14 May 2008, BHP Billiton shares rose to
6006-582: Was smelted at the Intercolonial Smelting and Refining Company's works at Spotswood, Victoria , a suburb of Melbourne. Historian Christopher Jay notes: The resulting 35,605 ounces of silver raised a lot of interest when exhibited at the City of Melbourne Bank in Collins Street . Some sceptics asserted the promoters were merely using silver from somewhere else, to ramp up the shares.... Another shareholder,
6084-725: Was the Labradorian, lasting from 2.0–1.65 Ga . It was followed by the Anabarian, which lasted from 1.65–1.2 Ga and was itself followed by the Turukhanian from 1.2–1.03 Ga. The Turukhanian was succeeded by the Uchuromayan, lasting from 1.03–0.85 Ga, which was in turn succeeded by the Yuzhnouralian, lasting from 0.85–0.63 Ga. The final two zones were the Amadeusian, spanning
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