BHP Group is exploring the sale of a desalination plant in Chile along with its electricity transmission assets there, according to Bloomberg.
It extends a strategy of monetising infrastructure as the world's biggest miner focuses capital on its core copper business. The process is at an early stage, and no final decision has been made, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter is confidential.
The assets could be valued at a combined $1.5 billion to $2 billion, the people said: roughly $1 billion to $1.3 billion for the electricity transmission lines and $500 million to $700 million for the desalination plant. Valuation, timing, and deal structure remain under discussion. BHP declined to comment.
The Puerto Coloso desalination plant supplies BHP's Escondida mine, the world's largest copper mine. It is among the largest reverse osmosis plants globally, pumping 3,800 litres per second to an altitude of more than 3,200 meters to reach the operation.
No potential bidders have been identified, as the deal has not yet formally launched. One person said any buyer would likely enter long-term service agreements with BHP, providing stable cash flows backed by some of the world's largest copper mines.
A sale would be the latest step in BHP's plan to unlock as much as $10 billion from infrastructure, by-products, and other non-core assets to help fund its expanding copper business. The company has already agreed to sell a 49% stake in power transmission assets serving its Western Australian iron ore operations and signed a $4.3 billion silver streaming deal tied to the Antamina mine in Peru.
BHP has increasingly concentrated on copper and potash, exiting petroleum, reducing its coal exposure, and directing capital toward large copper growth projects, including the Escondida expansion and the Vicuña copper district in Argentina.
