Crushing It Together
Yesterday was a significant and proud moment for BHP’s Western Australia Iron Ore (WAIO) team, as we formally announced and celebrated an historic agreement with PMW Industries.
Led by Banjima business owner, Paula White, PMW is a 100 per cent owned and operated Banjima Pilbara Aboriginal Traditional Owner business. Under the agreement, PMW will operate on country, maintaining a semi-mobile crushing and screening plant at our Mining Area C operation, supported by their new strategic CSI Mining Services.
It’s a large-scale, long-term scope of work, and it’s a job creator – with up to 30 new employment and training opportunities for Banjima and Indigenous people. Importantly, it builds upon WAIO’s already enduring relationship with PMW – which started more than three years ago through our Local Buying Program.
WAIO Asset President, Brandon Craig, said he was proud of the growing relationship between BHP and PMW Industries, saying the crushing contract award was one of the largest in WAIO’s history.
“Our Mining Area C iron ore operation is on Banjima country – in line with our commitment to become the partner of choice for Indigenous people, this partnership is founded on respect and mutual benefit. We are working hard to create more opportunities for Indigenous businesses to support the growth of Indigenous enterprise, partnering for the future.”
Paula added: “PMW Industries is very proud to be partnering with BHP and CSI to enable more employment and economic empowerment for Traditional Owners and Indigenous people. As a Banjima woman and business owner, I’m also delighted to be creating opportunities for other Indigenous women and young girls to follow their dreams.”
This step forward builds upon our commitment to drive more sustainable, profitable and enduring partnerships with Indigenous businesses across our operations. In WAIO alone, by FY24, we will double our current annual spend with Indigenous businesses to over $300m.
At the same time, we are actively improving our sourcing systems and procurement processes, in partnership with Traditional Owner and indigenous businesses. This was demonstrated with the PMW agreement, which followed a competitive Banjima-only tender, structured specifically to enable Traditional Owner businesses to operate on country.
We’re taking these important steps so we can all do more, together.