You probably want to look at the free cash flow of BHP, etc as...

You probably want to look at the free cash flow of BHP, etc as PE is influenced by non-cash things such as writedowns, etc. Free cash flow is a more accurate depiction of a company's underyling cash profitability. For example. BHP and RIO both trading on a forecast FY24 cashflow ratio of ~13 and FMG ~9. But you think PLS is deserving of a multiple of almost double that. And PLS is a one-trick pony, so much higher risk to a single commodity price movement. But hey, it's still deserving of a higher multiple for no real good reason

And like I've said before, looking at the industry average for anything - PE, free cash flow, etc - is a mug's game. That includes all companies, including explorers, developers, etc. So it's obviously going to skew averages higher when you include companies that aren't producing any revenue. Look at the lithium sector. There's so many explorers and developers that the sector as a whole is probably trading on an average PE/free cash flow ratio of 30 or something. So whatever the figure actually is, it's about as worthless as the toilet paper I wipe my backside with.