I would read this as BHP doubling down on copper as a commodity,...

I would read this as BHP doubling down on copper as a commodity, which totally makes sense when you consider the career and who the COO (Edgar Basto) is. This gives them optionality for copper expansion in case something funky happens in South Australia (water, power or local politics) then they have another option going forward, similarly if something weird happens in Chile/Argentina then they have all the South Australian Olympic Dam/OZL assets in their back pocket.

Lundin are a great partner, but will be interesting to see if the Canadian regulators have anything to say about the proposed JV, as long as its viewed to be a JV I can only see regulatory risk in either Chile (unlikely because of BHP's footprint already there) and Argentina (unlikely because of Lundin's good relations with Argentina).

Interesting to see that BHP has read the room, and full takeovers may not be the way forward and maybe JV partnerships are more acceptable for governments and regulators.