Major Bowen Basin coal player BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) spent $8.1 billion with suppliers in the 2024 financial year, including more than $1.6 billion spent with 950 local suppliers.

It also forked out more than $4 billion to the Queensland Government in royalties and contributed 9 per cent of all government revenue (excluding grants) in the state.

The figures are drawn from the BHP/BMA Community Contribution Report for Queensland, which also highlights a $11.9 million ‘social investment’ spend.

This covers a raft of education and training, environmental, Indigenous economic development and health and wellbeing projects.

“The partnerships we hold with communities are among the most important we share, playing an important role in enabling us to build a better world right here from Queensland,” BMA asset president Adam Lancey said.

“Our success as a business is reliant on achieving long-term social, environmental and economic outcomes in partnership with the communities where we operate and that is what we strived to achieve in FY2024.

“We are immensely proud of our positive contribution to society made by the people and businesses all along the supply chain from supporting education, skills and training across all stages of learning, to providing community grants for local events and initiatives, and funding programs and partnerships.”

He said the industry faced many challenges in 2024 – from weather impacts to inflationary pressures and government policy and fiscal settings which continued to impact future investment in Queensland.

“Notwithstanding the challenges and change to our business, our commitment to the communities we are a part of remains steadfast,” he said.

BMA spent more than $80 million with Indigenous and Traditional Owner businesses last year, including 3BB Contracting, which is providing rehab services at the Goonyella Riverside and Saraji coal mines.

They have a crew of more than 40, of which 45 per cent are Barada Barna people.

“We’ve doubled the crew that we started with, so it’s been an amazing opportunity for us,” 3BB managing director Nicole Muller said.

“Words can’t describe how we’re feeling about the process of 3BB growing in such a short time and building our capability within the rehab scope. BHP has allowed us to build that by securing some of these contracts that we have with them.

“Our focus is to make sure that 3BB is set up to generate revenue back to our charitable trust that services all our descendants. We’ve got over a thousand descendants, so it actually helps with the social policies.

“BHP have given 3BB a lot of opportunities.

“It’s part of our cultural duty to look after the land. We aim to rehab that land back to what it used to look like or similar. There’s a great sense of pride in being able to do that.”