Page 327 - Annual Report 2020

6.6.5 Water information – performance data

This section provides detailed disclosure of our various water FY2020 Withdrawals by asset (by source)
metrics. All water performance data presented in this Report are Strategic Report
from operated assets during FY2020, and exclude Discontinued Per million megalitres
operations. (Onshore US assets). 2.0
Definitions of water metrics, sources and types is provided in
sections 6.6 and 6.8.2. 1.5
BHP has continued to classify water quality into three categories
in line with the Minerals Council of Australia’s Water Accounting 1.0
Framework (WAF) as this provides more granularity. Type 1 and
Type 2 equate to high-quality water, while Type 3 equates 5
to low-quality water under the International Council on Mining
and Metals (ICMM) Guidelines. Governance at BHP
Water withdrawals 0
Water withdrawals represent the volume of water, in megalitres Escondida Iron Ore Petroleum (BMA/BMC) Nickel West Pampa Norte Legacy sites
(ML) received and intended for use by the operated asset from Western Australia Queensland Coal Olympic Dam NSW Energy Coal Potash Canada
the water environment and/or a third party supplier. (1)
FY2017 – FY2020 withdrawals (by source) ● Seawater ● Surface water ● Groundwater
Per million megalitres
Water withdrawals for FY2020 across our operations increased
4.0 by 8 per cent from FY2019 (from 352,950 ML to 380,330 ML), due
primarily to increased use at Escondida. Minor increases at other
3.2 ● Seawater assets (e.g. Olympic Dam) were offset by a decrease in withdrawal Remuneration Report
● Groundwater at our Queensland Coal operated assets due to lower than average
2.4 ● Surface water rainfall in the region. Despite the increase in water withdrawal, our
withdrawal of high-quality (Type 1) water reduced from 58,850 ML
in FY2019 to 51,610 ML.
1.6
The majority of our water withdrawals now come from seawater.
Escondida stopped drawing groundwater from the Monturaqui
8
borefield in the second half of FY2020 and water for operational
purposes is now supplied entirely by desalinated seawater, other
0 than small quantities of groundwater extracted for pit dewatering Directors’ Report
2017 2018 2019 2020 to allow safe mining. The proportion of withdrawals relating to
groundwater across BHP reduced from 40 per cent in FY2019
FY2017 – FY2020 withdrawals (by quality) to 33 per cent in FY2020, and is expected to reduce further when
the effect of Escondida’s cessation of groundwater extraction from
Per million megalitres
the Andean aquifers is seen over a full year. WAIO and Queensland
4.0 Coal account for more than 50 per cent of terrestrial water
withdrawal across our business. All of the WAIO withdrawals are
3.2 ● Type 3 from groundwater. Queensland Coal draws from a mix of surface
water (collected rainfall runoff represents approximately 75 per cent
● Type 2 of surface water withdrawal) and groundwater. Due to ongoing
2.4 ● Type 1 improvement in our water data, it was identified that water
extracted during the petroleum production process to access Financial Statements
1.6 hydrocarbon products should be classified as groundwater
withdrawal under the ICMM and WAF guidance. Prior to FY2019,
8 this was reported as seawater withdrawal.
Freshwater withdrawal decreased 18 per cent in FY2020
(2)
0 compared to FY2019 and 19 per cent compared to our FY2017
2017 2018 2019 2020 baseline. This was primarily due to the early cessation of 6
groundwater extraction at Escondida. The withdrawals, and
the material contributors to these, were within expectations for
FY2020 and in line with our ambition to minimise our withdrawal
of high-quality fresh water and replace these with seawater/
low-quality withdrawals where feasible. As the results are within
expectations, there is no implications for current commitments, Additional information
strategy and costs for the business with respect to water
withdrawals. For more information on freshwater withdrawal,
refer to section 1.7.6.

(1) Volumes of withdrawal by source have been updated for FY2019, FY2018 and FY2017 for the Nickel West, Kwinana operated asset. Previously the total volumes Shareholder information
of water supplied to the site by third party, Water Corporation, was proportionately to source in alignment with the public information (48 per cent from seawater,
42 per cent from groundwater and 10 per cent from surface water). In FY2020, Water Corporation supplied BHP site specific proportions of water sources for our
Kwinana operations for the FY2017 to FY2020 period.
(2) ‘Freshwater’ is defined as waters other than seawater, wastewater from third parties and hypersaline ground water. Freshwater withdrawal also excludes entrained
water that would not be available for other uses. These exclusions have been made to align with the target’s intent to reduce the use of freshwater sources of potential
value to other users or the environment.

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