It is a pretty good deposit but BHP needs a lot more like it. I...

It is a pretty good deposit but BHP needs a lot more like it. I believe they need to be very aggressive in pursing copper. There's very little in tier 1 jurisdictions and this forces them to look overseas.

South America is good...until it goes wrong (one can't ignore the long history of political issues)
Africa has problems with the west and China can just play the game better there
Eurasia is difficult, as it gets much closer to Russia and China's spheres of influence
Middle East may have some but requires more exploration in the remote areas. They should start talks with some of the more stable countries like Saudi Arabia to see what there is.
Arctic Canada might be really good and the closest thing to tier 1 that's pretty underexplored.

As you can see they all have their own set of issues and are not perfect (but neither is Australia) and these issues take time to resolve while also searching for several deposits that match what BHP requires.

I personally think they should reach out to countries which have good risk profile they are comfortable with and start a dialogue that they would be interested in working together if an opportunity comes up.

In the meantime, let the juniors take the risk exploring but keep a strong eye on them and partner up in a friendly manner when something lines up in jurisdictions BHP is comfortable with. By being friendly with juniors it will make more of them want to partner with BHP over other majors (who no doubt will be thinking the same thing) and this leads to more greenfields exploration which CANNOT be ignored.

As for some of the mid range deposits globally, perhaps we might see them try and take them over as it's not exactly what they want but better than nothing.