, Columnist
BHP's Neglected Cash Cow
Iron ore is starved of capital despite churning out returns that support investment in weaker businesses.
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For all the scale of the world's biggest mining company -- assets on six continents, $30 billion-odd in annual revenues, better Ebitda margins than Apple or LVMH -- you can get a pretty good idea of BHP Billiton by looking at just three holdings.
The Escondida copper mine in Chile, the Pilbara iron-ore pits, and its Australian petroleum wells together accounted for 87 percent of underlying Ebit in 2014, and 104 percent in 2015 -- when the rest of the company lost money in aggregate.