MELBOURNE, April 3, 2026, 07:12 AEDT
BHP Group has completed its $4.3 billion silver streaming deal with Wheaton Precious Metals, drawing immediate cash from its share of output at Peru’s Antamina mine. BHP said it received the upfront payment, while Wheaton said the stream took effect on April 1. 1
That matters now because BHP has been using asset-management deals to free cash as copper takes a bigger share of the business. In February, the miner said copper supplied 51% of group underlying EBITDA, its measure of operating earnings before one-off items, and that the Antamina stream plus a separate Western Australia iron ore power deal would unlock more than $6 billion of cash, with potential to reach $10 billion. 2
A streaming deal is a financing arrangement in which a buyer pays upfront for a slice of future metal output. Under the Antamina contract, Wheaton will receive silver tied to 33.75% of BHP’s share of mine output until 100 million ounces have been delivered, then 22.5% for the rest of mine life, while still paying BHP 20% of the spot silver price on each ounce; settlement is through metal credits, meaning no physical silver is shipped to Wheaton. BHP said the structure lets it monetize a non-core by-product while keeping full exposure to Antamina’s copper, zinc and lead, and Mike Henry called it a way to “unlock additional value from the asset” in a disciplined way. 3
Antamina is a large, low-cost copper-zinc mine in Peru’s Ancash region, about 270 kilometres north of Lima. Deal documents described current reserves as sufficient to support mining until 2036, while the joint venture ownership remains BHP 33.75%, Glencore 33.75%, Teck Resources 22.5% and Mitsubishi 10%. 4
For Wheaton, the transaction deepens an existing bet on the mine. Because it already had a silver arrangement tied to Glencore’s matching Antamina stake, its combined entitlement rises to 67.5% of the mine’s silver; chief executive Randy Smallwood said “quality silver production is becoming increasingly difficult to source,” while President Haytham Hodaly called deeper exposure to Antamina a “unique and transformative opportunity.” 5
The deal also lands as the big diversified miners tilt harder toward copper. In February, copper had become the largest contributor to BHP’s operating earnings and about 30% of Rio Tinto’s annual earnings, underscoring why the sector is trying to loosen its reliance on iron ore even as quality copper assets grow harder and more expensive to secure. 6
But the cash injection does not clear the risks. BHP still leans heavily on iron ore, and China Mineral Resources Group widened restrictions on some BHP cargoes in March as contract talks dragged on, before briefly easing one Jimblebar ban days later; the silver stream will also rise and fall with actual Antamina output because the contract is tied to mine production. 7
Argo Investments portfolio manager Andy Forster, a BHP shareholder, said after the February half-year report that the result was “good” and that the miner “smashed everyone’s expectations” on the dividend. With the Wheaton money now in hand, investors will likely judge BHP on the same test: whether it can keep paying out while funding the copper projects it says set the group apart. 8
