"...gender balance..."It doesnt surprise me that BHP would...

"...gender balance..."

It doesnt surprise me that BHP would aspire to an overly simplistic symbolic target like that. Stop and consider it for a bit, and it falls apart.

Like, for example, women in certain age groups going on maternity leave...and increasingly men going on paternity leave as well...who then takes the load. The mines generally run 24/7, so who makes that happen and delivers value for shareholders when people decide having kids is more important?

Go to the locomotive workshops, the pits, the maintenance crews, where are all these "female" mechanics, sparkies, fitters, riggers, etc coming from? Is BHP sending reps out to schools in the cities encouraging the girls to take a trade?

No, so thats why we have stories of women being employed into roles they arent really qualified for in the name of gender "balance". For it to even work, nursing, cleaning, childcare, etc would have to be balanced also.

These big miners are increasingly detached from reality. They need to breakup and demerge and get refocused on shareholder value.

I want to get back into FMG at some stage, not because theyre green or woke, but because they are tight as a drum on costs and pay the best dividend of them all.