The industry has also been facing greater scrutiny over its treatment of traditional landowners in Australia and around the world following Rio Tinto’s destruction of culturally significant Aboriginal rock shelters at Western Australia’s Juukan Gorge in 2020.

In its investor briefing on Tuesday evening, BHP acknowledged it had made mistakes in the past and was determined to do better. As part of a new framework directing BHP’s approach to “social value” issues including decarbonisation, environment and communities, Cox said the company would introduce a new process for traditional owners to rate how satisfied they were with their relationship with the company, and would publish the results each year.

“The more we listen and learn, the more we understand how we could have acted differently,” she said.

“To measure our performance, we will disclose relationship health as assessed by Indigenous partners – not a simple self-assessment – as well as our progress against co-created plans.”

BHP said progress towards its social value targets would be included in its annual reports.