Why BHP is comfortable with more debt to fuel long-term growth

Very good to be here.

Well, I'll give you maybe two or three of those. One, the dividend for 60 US cents per share, that is 90 cents on Australian dollars per share for the final dividend which is 60% payout. Second, 45% of EBITDA last year came from copper, which is fantastic. And third, we continue to be the lowest cost producer of iron ore in the world for the sixth year in a row, with C1 cost of only $17.56 per ton.

So every six months, Anna, we sit down with our capital allocation framework and look at allocating shareholders first a minimum 50% payout which goes directly, any excess cash between growth, value adding growth, and additional shareholder returns. As you said for our final dividend for this year we have announced 60% dividend payout ratio. So every six months 50% is minimum but there is opportunity to have higher as we did this time off the back of strong performance, very strong balance sheet, and confidence and outlook.

Yes, absolutely. As we have done this time, every six months taking the decision based on performance, based on outlook as well as value adding growth. As you mentioned, we do have very exciting growth opportunities in short-term as well as long-term. In iron ore, we are increasing from last year's 290 million tons to going up to 305 million tons by '28 onwards. In copper, across in South Australia where we are producing around 300 KT of copper, we're looking to double that by the middle of next decade. And in Chile where we operate one of the largest copper mines in the world, we are also investing for growth. So between now and next 10 years, BHP's growth rate will be around 2.2%, 2% per annum basis. So really exciting growth and balancing that with attractive shareholder returns. That's what comes out of strong stable consistent performance that we have had. BHP has had more than 50% of margin for last 20 years and the stability is really the hallmark of BHP.