James Agar, BHP’s Group Procurement Officer, has called for systematic collaboration and radical transparency within the mining sector when he addressed the main session at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC), in Australia, this morning.

Agar said the industry needs to reflect on the experience of COVID-19 and use it to strengthen the industry’s resilience from supply chain constraints.

“As a result of COVID, global demand vanished almost overnight,” he said. “What we learnt is that we can’t do it alone, we need to work collaborative and we need to be more transparent with our partners.”

Despite coming out the other side after the worst of COVID lockdowns, the global economic outlook has not improved, Agar mentioned.

“Labour markets are tight globally, with no sign of easing soon,” he said. “The energy crisis in Europe is profound and will continue to drive volatility in energy markets.”

As a result, BHP is pursuing a policy of “radical transparency and systematic collaboration” to ease pressures facing Australia’s largest miner.

Agar explained that this means building relationships with all stakeholders that support BHP’s operations, no matter the size of the partner.

“At BHP, we know we haven’t always been perfect in this regard,” he said.

International Mining is a media sponsor of IMARC, which runs from November 2-4 in Sydney, Australia