, Columnist
BHP’s Costs Crash Diet Is Running Out of Steam
The discipline that buoyed miners through lean years is starting to slip.
Andrew Mackenzie: Happy for now.
Photographer: Carla Gottgens/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Going on a crash diet seems great while you’re shedding the pounds. The problem is sticking with it for the long term.
That’s what seems to be happening to the world’s miners, which have spent the years since the commodity boom peaked in 2011 holding down salaries, eking out efficiencies and extracting the highest-quality parts of their deposits to keep costs in line with deflating prices.