BHP’s accelerator program, BHP Xplor, has announced its first cohort of seven companies to help with copper, nickel and other critical mineral discoveries.
BHP Xplor was introduced by the major miner in August 2022 and has since gone through hundreds of applications.
The seven companies have been selected to receive funding and support under the BHP Xplor program, designed to provide participants with the opportunity to accelerate their growth and the potential to establish a long-term partnership.
“We are amazed by the diversity and quality of the submissions we reviewed and selected,” BHP Xplor vice president Sonia Scarselli said.
“We are confident that the BHP Xplor program will support the seven companies chosen to accelerate their concepts and ideas to help take it to the next level.”
BHP Xplor also provides BHP the opportunity to access exciting exploration prospects around the world, including new geographies and geologic concepts, helping to drive the company’s pipeline of new opportunities.
“Through this program, we hope to create disruptive results in copper and nickel exploration by identifying new concepts, leveraging new data and testing opportunities at a much faster pace than discoveries to date,” BHP chief development officer Johan van Jaarsveld said.
Each of the seven companies will receive $US500,000 cash payment from BHP and access to a network of internal and external experts.
The seven selected companies:
- Tutume Metals – a junior exploration company searching for critical minerals in Botswana
- Impact Minerals – a junior ASX-listed explorer with a variety of battery metals projects across Australia
- Asian Battery Minerals – a junior exploration company focused on finding economic deposits of critical minerals in the Asia-Pacific region
- Red Ox Copper – an Australian exploration group specialising in generating grassroots, greenfield conceptual plays
- Bronzite Exploration Corp – an early-stage exploration for copper in northern Canada
- Nordic Nickel – a new nickel sulphite ASX-listed explorer, focusing on two projects in Northern Finland
- Kingrose Mining – a junior ASX-listed exploration company with regional projects in Norway and Finland targeting nickel, copper and platinum elements