By Jo Nova
The ABC and the Guardian think they are onto some hot scandalous leak, but they don’t seem to realize the awful truth they are accidentally revealing.
This is not the story of an evil miner failing to make commitments, it’s the story of their technology fantasy busting. If wind and solar power were cheap, the profit hungry miners would be doing it wouldn’t they?
Instead all their ambitious plans are coming undone.
BHP is the largest mining company in the world, it has shareholder approval to spend millions on wind and solar projects and on the conversion to electric trucks. They also had an enthusiastic management and Net Zero targets, yet somehow the company has decided to drop or delay the wind and solar projects, and the low emissions processing plant too. It’s all been put in the deep freeze, delayed until 2031 before it even starts.
The truth is that the big electric haul trucks are not even close to being ready, and without the batteries to soak up the unreliable power, there was no point in spending a billion dollars on the wind and solar projects either yet.
Everything hinged on the electric trucks being ready but they weren’t:
World’s biggest miner BHP backtracks on climate action with key projects put on ice, leaked documents reveal
By Christopher Knaus and Adam Morton, The Guardian
In a statement, BHP said its progress towards net zero emissions was dependant on technological shifts in trucks, trains and bulldozers, which were not yet ready to be deployed.
“For example, no Australian mining operation is currently utilising critical 240-ton battery-electric haul trucks as the technology is not advanced enough to scale to an operational fleet,” a spokesperson said.
The company is trialling battery electric trucks…
“The technology simply does not exist:”
The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia, an industry group, said the shift to electrified haulage was incredibly complex and required a whole-of-sector effort to pioneer technological change.
“There is currently no mining operation anywhere in the world with the scale, complexity and operating conditions of the Pilbara running a fully electrified haulage fleet, because the technology to do so simply does not exist,” said its chief executive, Aaron Morey.
The ABC make out that BHP is being deceptive, saying it would cut emissions, while “locking in fossil fuels” yet the ABC has been deceptively telling us that wind and solar was the cheapest form of energy, while pretending they are real journalists, and not bothering to find out the real cost, something ten thousand engineers could have told them.
In their news stories the ABC didn’t have the honesty to mention that the failure of the “urgent” BHP plans shows that wind and solar obviously weren’t cheaper or more useful than diesel.
BHP put in a sincere effort, but the ABC was deceptive all along
The only thing that the ABC “caught” BHP doing was plotting how to manage the reputational hit from making realistic business decisions. In a normal world they shouldn’t need to do that. But when the media-commentariat is fixated with trying to control the weather, then sensible companies make plans to put out those reputational fires. The fact that reporting is so irrational reflects badly on the ABC and The Guardian, not on BHP.
It doesn’t appear to have even crossed the minds of the ABC-Guardian team that their story puts renewable energy in a dismal light. They seem to believe that the higher costs are irrelevant and companies should spend the extra dollars out of charity for the planet, even though they’d be depriving their shareholders to do it. How about those ethics, eh?
The ABC reports that another thing that foiled the BHP plan was that diesel trucks got cheaper (the tragedy!):
Leaked documents expose how BHP shelved its ‘urgent’ plans to cut WA emissions
ABC News
They were working to a tight deadline — about 80 per cent of BHP’s Pilbara trucks were due to finish their operational life between 2024 and 2027.
A temporary fix was hit upon. BHP would overhaul its current fleet of diesel trucks to extend their life by a few years. This would buy the company time so it could start going electric in the late 2020s. But once again, the company had a change of heart. And once again, cost was a factor.
In 2023, diesel trucks from its main supplier Caterpillar suddenly became cheaper. The internal documents show rather than $5 million each, the price had fallen to $3 million.
So BHP went back on its plan. It purchased 62 new diesel trucks for its Jimblebar mine, locking in diesel use at one of its biggest mines until at least the late 2030s and potentially to 2041.
When diesel trucks became $2 million dollars cheaper each, should BHP have bought the expensive electric trucks anyway, and thus reduced their profits, providing less money for mums and dads superannuation accounts, and charged more for the ore, eventually depriving Mum and Dad of cheaper steel too?
The ABC reports on companies as if they are a failed wing of a government department, not a mass of independently organized people working together to serve millions of other people who willingly pay for these goods and services.
Thanks to Vic.
Photos from BHP Australia.
And the Australian government is slashing climate science funding for the CSIRO
Mind you, lobby revenue and taxes from BHP do keep the government and the major political parties afloat
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Peter, rather than “decarbonising” I think we should follow China’s energy policies and have no restrictions on building power plants and no CO2 emissions restrictions. E.g. they are by far the world’s largest CO2 emitter (nothing wrong with that) and building two coal power stations per week.
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They should have stopped funding the CSIRO altogether. They won’t because the CSIRO dance to the government tune. If Minister Bowen wants a report supporting renewables just ask the CSIRO and it will trot one out. It did its best to bury red meat too. Remember one fellow actually brought out an honest report many years back and was sacked for his efforts. The CSIRO is no longer a scientific organisation; just another left wing cheer squad.
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I knew an industrial chemist, who for reasons took a part-time job as a cleaner. This turned out to be in an CSIRO setup.
He was appalled by the nonsense there. He noted the set-up in a fume cupboard ready for a coming inspection; this was a flask with various adjuncts like condenser etc. but it was slightly acidic water containing a small amount of phenolphthalein and its was demonstrated to him, by one of the scientific stall there what happened, when the weak alkaline solution was added slowly, causing it to turn pink. Supposedly kept for some big-wigs visiting.
With some difficulty he expressed his admiration.
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Seriously ?
Tabs of litmus paper are easier to handle, of course, although perhaps less impressive for politicians to view.
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I’m surprised they didn’t put dry ice into the mix to create bubbles and fog, just like in old “mad scientist” science fiction movies.
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Oops… dry ice?? Might cause some globul warming, can’t have that.🥴
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The big wig visiting was probably the Minister for Science at the time. Someone with a Bachelor of Arts degree who had worked their whole time as either a union official or political adviser. The TV series “Utopia” always portrayed the Minister of Infrastructure as being a complete spud. So, just imagine Chris Bowen visiting.
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PF, it’s just not economically viable. Watch this video and see if you change your mind. A forestry company admit as much via the ABC…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5hQfCWCjpE
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From the ABC article:
“The reason why the truck is no longer in operation is it wasn’t financially viable to continue it when you compare it with a like-for-like diesel truck,” Ms Fennell said.
“The costs that impaired that truck was the charging infrastructure costs.
“You don’t have to pay for service stations, you only pay for the diesel.”
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That’s what psychologists call ‘projection’.
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“And the Australian government is slashing climate science funding for the CSIRO.”
Good to hear Peter, it seems the penny is about to drop, also Twiggy is apparently a wakeup to the futility of it all.
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“And the Australian government is slashing climate science funding for the CSIRO.”
Climate science is an oxymoron.
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That would be a wonderful title for Jo to use on one of her posts.
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wal1957,
I know I’m fighting against the tide, but that’s not correct use of oxymoron.
It’s a term for a figure of speech where opposites are brought together for effect: Shakespeare’s “Parting is such sweet sorrow“, or in everyday use “deafening silence“.
I suppose the “correct” wording would be that climate science is a contradiction in terms. I admit that’s verbose and not up with fashion.
How about a compromise and just say climate science is moronic?
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You are correct.
And I agree with you.
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l think Chris Bowen shouldn’t be the minister for Climate Change and Energy, nor should his successor. The portfolio should be split into two. I thought the current dual title might be an oxymoron but l think it’s just contradictory- a minister pursuing net zero goals cannot by reason implement strategies that will ensure Australia’s energy security, but they definitely can take steps to sabotage it.
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Chris Bowen shouldn’t be Minister for anything. He’s barely competent to wipe his own butt.
Back when he was Immigration Minister even the Canberra public servants in his Department regarded him with contempt for his incompetence.
It does make you wonder just what sort of blackmail material his puppet masters have over other senior Labor figures that he keeps getting Ministerial positions and a safe seat.
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“the “correct” wording would be that climate science is a contradiction in terms.”
An oxymoron is a contradiction in terms, like military intelligence.
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As soon as 4 Corners said the ABC and The Guardian were investigating greenhouse gas emissions, I switched off and went to bed. The world has moved on and they don’t realize it.
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You switched them on? Look, I get that it’s important to hear both sides of an argument, but I gave up listening to them preach their Gospel years ago. It isn’t argument, it’s Religion. I only have one of those. You’re brave!
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Ken I switched over to see what 4Corners was singeing about this week and was enraptured at what I was seeing, could not stop laughing. Here was big business dropping “decarb” plans and quietly contracting for 60 odd new diesel Haulpacks that would take the diesel use out to 2040, because the battery trucks are not yet viable. Well who woulda thought!
No mention when talking to Dino, the Fortesque manager about Twiggys failed Green Hydrogen caper with all that Taxpayer largesse. And there was Twiggy with all the new Battery Trucks and Locomotives lying around waiting for what? He has built the solar and wind and has stalled the chargers and still not using them, why not?
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Twiggy couldn’t just dig into his own deep pockets to produce green hydrogen, he required taxpayers money to kickstart his pointless project in Queensland. Then the cost of power in Australia apparently became too high to make it viable so he shipped the project to Arizona. Then power became too expensive in the USA so he cancelled the project (which he wrongfully blamed on Trump).
The potency of the climate change narrative is illustrated by a man with keen business acumen making poor decisions on developing novel sources of energy that were always doomed to fail (at least with the current technology available).
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Exteremly rare now for us to watch any free to air TV other than a bit of Sky News, certaily not ABC ever. Properganda is banned in our house.
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Was that code for investigating Guardian guardian Turnbull emissions?
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I am always amused by the term “decarbonisation” as used by Leftists like ABC/SBS “journalists”, various politicians and Labor, Greens, Teal and wet Liberals when they don’t even know or understand the role or significance of carbon, the foundational element of all life. And they always say “carbon” when they mean carbon dioxide although they wouldn’t know the difference either.
The dumbing-down is complete.
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Perhaps the ABC, Guardian and associated reporters should be “decarbonised?” It sounds almost shivery, like the 70’s Arch-Criminal Masterminds who said “liquidated.” “Mr. Bond, you will soon be decarbonised.”
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My beef is that not one scientist, worthy of the name, working in a government or university role ever corrects the mistake. They are complicit in the government’s disinformation programme.
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Richard Lindzen, William Happer in the US, Bob Carter, Wilkiam Kininmonth in Australia. Henrik Svensmark and others in other parts of the world. They were routinely and relentlessly dismissed and vilified. Speaking out was career-ending. OK, the others had a job and they let us down by not doing it. They should have spoken out and lost their jobs, but that is a very tough call. Maybe they hoped that by keeping their powder dry they could use it later on when it could have more effect. In any case, keep your revenge for the ones who created the situation, not their victims.
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Don’t forget Ian Plimer. And he’s published several books about it.
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Achieving Net Zero Report
Note contributors include Professors Ian Plimer and Peter Ridd
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https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2022/03/Kelly-Net-Zero-Progress-Report.pdf?mc_cid=3de10e3d7a&mc_eid=4961da7cb1
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Only after they retire and have their retirements locked in, it seems.
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I used to decarbonise the spark plug on my moped!! 😜
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Correct David. Carbon forms more compounds than all the other elements combined. Having four electron spaces to spare in its second shell it can take in four other electrons such as CH4 when it takes in four hydrogen electrons and forms methane. It also combines with calcium and magnesium to form common minerals and is wide spread in limestone, coral, shells of oysters and clams. Those politicians would be wearing it in jewelry and you would never hear them say that diamonds were evil or when they board an aircraft for their holidays and have those lovely hydrogen and carbon atoms propel them to their destination. Carbon compounds have been known to bond in more than a million ways and is so diverse that its study makes a special field in chemistry called organic chemistry. You have to be really stupid to infer that carbon is evil or something to be done away with.
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“The dumbing-down is complete.”
As the “Jazz Singer” observed:
“You ain’t seen nothing, yet!”.
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Talk about a slow death lol. Great to see though.
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“The technology doesn’t exist” is still a long way from “solar and wind and batteries are profitable”. But no one at their ABC knows what earning a profit for its shareholders actually means!
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Their ABC profit and loss statement is an ATM receipt.
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I disagree with this. BHP and even the Australian Mining Council have been complicit in spreading the CO2 causes warming fairy tale. They have been riding a wave of unprecedented growth in minerals consumption to fuel the pointless build out of wind, solar, batteries, transmission lines and countless other piles of junk to convert a low cost, reliable power grid into a high cost, low reliability subsidy harvester.
Trump has caused this change by removing a major market for Chinese production of useless stuff. Demand for all the useless stuff is on the slide.
A company the size of BHP could establish a small team of engineers and geologists to examine the Climate Change™ evidence and soon realise it is fantasy. They could have hired Ian Plimer (as I suspect Trump did) who would have put them straight in a one day workshop.
Their effort has NOT been “sincere”. Their greed has given as much as it can and Trump has shut down the subsidy spigot.
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Rick, BHP most probably knew it was all a fantasy but the Board knew that failure to follow the Canberra Line might make it difficult to get a project running.
Notice that most of their new projects are not in Australia.
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I am guessing that due to the difficulty of doing any type of business in Australia, the high cost of energy, the feral unions, the high cost of land, high taxes, excessive regulations etc. any large enterprise would be foolish to try and do business anywhere else but overseas. Enterprises too small to do that, like small family businesses, tend to just close down, as can be seen in your local main street with numerous empty shops.
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Interesting item in the news on massive cost and delays surrounding indigenous requirements and overheads in mining projects. At least we are at the stage where it can be talked about now.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/mining/23000-per-day-wa-mining-companies-fork-out-10-million-for-aboriginal-cultural-heritage-surveys/news-story/4d4770e18b69226509f1753e8c0592b3
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Reality can be a terrifying leveller. It’s also a measure of common sense, not to mention an even small smattering of acknowledgement of less than basic physics!!
How stupid & uneducated do these climate nutters are! Can’t imagine being so oblivious to nature!!
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BHP?
The Big Australian?
Majority owned by “foreigners?
The Dirty Big Australian?
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It’s good to see their house of cards/pack of lies is finally tumbling to earth.
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Has this “revelation” caused the BHP share price to increase?
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As usual, can I pass on my hearty thanks to the person (or people) that so bravely volunteered to watch the ABC in compiling this story. You go where many of us fear to tread. To those other contributors who also tuned in to 4C’s, I feel your pain.
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And BHP should rely on unicorn flatulence and rainbows to keep the idiots happy.
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I went to the link to the Guardian and received the following message;
In their dreams!
They are lucky that I have the patience to speed read their article,
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More wonderful news to start my day and let’s hope that BHP and silly Twiggy etc continue to wake up to the ABC + Guardian liars and con merchants.
Batteries will never be used to run ore trucks and anyway the savings in co2 emissions are a joke and wouldn’t make the slightest difference to our weather or climate by 2100 or by 2500.
The Royal Society know this and so does “The Conversation” etc con merchants.
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Interesting to note that taxpayers pay more than a billion dollars to run the ABC.
BHP actually PAY the taxpayer billions of dollars in taxes.
Which company is more concerned about efficiency and productivity and minimising tax expenditure.
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Their ABC tells us that BHP was seduced back into the arms of diesel by the evil Caterpillar Corp’s predatory pricing strategy. Gotcha:
In 2023, diesel trucks from its main supplier Caterpillar suddenly became cheaper. The internal documents show rather than $5 million each, the price had fallen to $3 million.
So BHP went back on its plan. It purchased 62 new diesel trucks for its Jimblebar mine…
The ABC misinformalists appear to think that turning a truck fleet over is done on the same basis as a trip to Colesworth: ‘Ooh look, dear, a 2 For 1, Prices Are Down Down on dump trucks – we’d better buy some…’
The reality is that economic and commercial decision-making around the sustaining capex vs opex of critical infrastructure, such as a fleet of dump trucks, is carefully micromanaged – and the replacement purchase planned and organised with the supplier years in advance. Just as you can’t buy nonexistent battery-operated trucks, you can’t just pop down to the shops for 62 yellow diesel ones.
(For context, Jimblebar is a 75mtpa operation, US$75-80 bn/pa, with an annual s.i.b capex budget of ~US$350/400m. Nice when you can extract it from the supplier, but it does not jump around chasing an opportunistic US$124 saving.)
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Plus long lead times for any new equipment. Just like big agricultural equipment with wait times up to 1 year ahead, although recently things have improved compared to COVID period.
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So why don’t the liars and con merchants spend just 5 minutes online and look up the co2 emissions data trajectory for the world since 1945 and then wake up?
I’ve included the world co2 emissions, NON OECD ( China, India, rest of Asia etc) , OECD and even Australia’s measly co2 emissions data for comparison.
BTW all of the increase in co2 emissions since Gore and Hansen’s stunt in Washington DC in 1988 have been emitted by the NON OECD countries over the last 36 years,( Up to 2024).
So when will the Guardian and their ABC tell the truth?
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-country?country=OWID_WRL~AUS~OECD+%28GCP%29~Non-OECD+%28GCP%29
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Today’s Sydney Morning Herald has a full page ad from Fortescue decrying BHPs decision (without actually naming them),and claiming Fortescue will be nutzero by 2030.
The claimed cost? US$6.2 billion.
I don’t think that will be good for their investors.
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Never mind the profits, feel the virtue!
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Ohhh Fortescue who feeds off the public purse through grants to support investing into green energy sources, like, Hydrogen etc etc, then pulls out and then says “payback what, don’t know what you’re talking about.”
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BTW here’s the “Conversation’s” article on co2 emissions and how long increased levels will stay in our atmosphere.
See the section they call “Slam on the Brakes” and they state that the increased levels would last for “thousands of years”.
We should be so lucky and the 11,000 year Holocene could end in a few thousand years and we could see co2 levels drop to 180 ppm again or even below 150 ppm and all life on Earth would then be at risk.
Never forget that the next full glaciation could last for 90,000 years.
https://theconversation.com/if-we-stopped-emitting-greenhouse-gases-right-now-would-we-stop-climate-change-78882
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So, from 1900 to 1940 (roughly) minus 0.37 to minus 0.05 when emissions were increasing
From 1950 to 1980 down slightly when emissions were increasing even more.
It seems that emissions aren’t the main cause. Whoever drew up that graph wasn’t that numerate.
From 1899 to 1940 the temperature rose about 0.54 ℃ with 140 billion CO2 emissions (over 6 times the temperature readings)
From 1941 to 1982 the temperature dropped about 0.59 ℃ with 460 billion CO2 emissions.
From 1983 to 2024 the temperature rose about 0.69 ℃ with 1210 billion CO2 emissions.
And the first thing I saw on The Conversation was an appeal for money, which I ignored and will do that.
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‘The released carbon dioxide will remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years.’
In fact residence time is only four years.
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Just on those, umm, trucks!
I have two images here, from my own visit at Kalgoorlie on the Indian Pacific train trip from Perth to Sydney last year. My day visit to Kalgoorlie included a visit to The Super Pit gold mine. This Super Pit is 3.5 kilometres long, 1.5 kilometres wide, and 600 metres deep. It is a combination of earlier previous gold mines, both open cut and underground mines, all combined now under the one ownership.
This first image is of one of those ‘dirt’ hauling vehicles, a Caterpillar 793C. I’ve only included this image to show ‘scale’ with the people shown alongside the vehicle. If you look at the top of the stairs you can see a man walking out of the driver’s area. That driver’s cabin is immediately to the right of that man, (as you look at the image) and it looks a little similar to what is shown in this image.
This second image is of the Super Pit itself. If you look half way down the image almost at far right, you’ll see one of these haulers on the road back down into the mine to pick up another load of ‘dirt’, and again, the image is for scale purposes. The truck is rounding that bend on just one of the many roads to the bottom of the pit. There’s a constant use of these trucks, and they move along at around 30 to 40 seconds apart. The trip from the bottom to the top takes a little less than the trip fully loaded from the bottom. That trip back up with the load on board takes between 20 and 45 minutes, and the trucks can reach a speed under load of 12 KPH, almost 8MPH. The drivers work a 12 hour shift and in that time, each driver might do 12 trips down and then back up, and there are 40 of these trucks at the site, going up and down, 24 hours a day. We were told that half the drivers are women, and that women are ‘not as hard’ on the trucks as the men are.
So then, let’s look at those trucks for a moment. They have a lifespan of around, umm, 1.4 MILLION kilometres (around 870,000 miles) and here, consider how long you might get of of your average road going car. At the half life of each truck (55,000 hours of operation) they will do a complete rebuild of the truck. The size of the engine is 85 litres (around 5200 Cubic inches) and it has a four stroke V16 engine, and again, a large V8 road going car will have a 5 Litre engine, so this truck engine is 17 times the capacity of one of those V8s. The engine in the truck operates at around 1750RPM, and produces a maximum power of 1886KW, so around 2530 Brake Horsepower. It has a fuel tank of 4540 litres (1200 gallons) and it burns 30 gallons an hour, so they would get around 40 hours of operation on one tank.
If I might offer a wry comment, it might go something like this.
Huh! Electrify that!! (you know, on a like for like basis)
Tony.
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It’s kinda funny how the “super pit” has it’s name and fame as being “super”, yet many other mines in Australia are much larger in area, of course, it is the depth of the Kalgoorlie Super pit that makes it so unique.
BHP’s Whaleback iron ore mine near Newman, WA is 5.5km long x 1.5km wide x 450m deep. Many of the other mines in the Pilbara are probably similar in size.
Premier Coal mine that feeds 2 of the 3 coal fired power stations in WA has a depth range up to 350m deep and is 8 km x 2.5 km of total area yet the “pit” itself is much smaller due to regular backfilling of previously mined areas. This is not so large an area considering it’s been supplying coal for 75 years.
One of the largest mine areas in Australia must be BHP’s Peak Downs / Saraji coal mines near Moranbah, Qld which started separately but have now joined in area, they cover an area approx 48km long (forty eight) x 2.5 km wide and has been mined for the last 54 yrs producing billions of tonnes of coking (metallurgical) coal for export.
Mining various minerals is what has built Australia’s previous immense wealth, yet inner city leftists want it all shut down in the false belief it will “save” the planet from a make believe disaster.
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Just imagine the information for an electric vehicle, and how it’s so far over the head of an ordinary person, you know, one who can lift the bonnet and, say, adjust the points and timing, yeah, been there done that and so much extra on four Corollas from 69 till 86, but working on an electric vehicle is, well ….. impossible to even comprehend.
So, keeping that in mind, and with respect to what I wrote above about that Cat 793C truck, here’s the pdf for that Cat 793C truck.
Keep in mind here that just the engine alone weighs, umm, 7.5 TONNES.
Hmm, here’s me wondering how many batteries might be needed to make that little baby run.
Tony.
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And you can park them wherever you like!
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ABC News having a sook on TV. Accentuating the “Ooooo, leaked documents” and missing the “BHP is a rational business.”
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I cannot understand why Board of Directors and major shareholders at Annual General Meetings have not stopped Chief Executive and other senior executives from pursuing this nonsense, economic vandalism recipe of disaster and future undermining of shareholders funds invested.
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Second thoughts, consider international pressure applied threatening business internationally via United Nations member countries.
Note the regular threats to publicise the alleged deterioration of the Great Barrier Reef from UN sources, knowing the adverse impact that would have on the tourism industry and in this example State of Queensland and the national economy.
International laws and courts attached to the UN tentacles have no powers unless a sovereign nation’s government agrees to accept the judgement and related penalty.
Most climate politics is therefore a form of blackmail.
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Channel 7 today saying good news for Australians as the demolition of the famous smoke stacks at the former Liddel Power Station in the Hunter Valley, means energy prices are ‘also’ set to fall, I don’t think so . .
Many people like myself will be greatly saddened to hear this news.
Back in the good old days in Sydney in the 60’s and 70’s, hundreds and thousands of engineers and draftys were employed in a labour of love on Power Stations like Liddel.
Progress ? I don’t think so . .
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That concrete stack looked brand new.
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