I've never liked buying or investing in ASX mining shares like BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP).
As I've written about before, I don't like the inherent cyclicality of mining companies and their limited ability to compound their earnings over long periods of time that results from it. There's nothing wrong with investing in miners in principle. It has just never been for me.
However, after seeing BHP's earnings report that was released earlier this week, I am reconsidering that bias.
As we covered on Tuesday, it was a stellar set of earnings that BHP dropped. The 'Big Australian' reported an 11% rise in revenues to US$27.9 billion. Underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were up 25% to US$15.46 billion, while the company's underlying profits spiked 22% to US$6.2 billion.
This all enabled BHP to hike its 2026 interim dividend by a pleasing 46% to 73 US cents per share.
None of those figures prompted me to reconsider buying BHP shares, though. What did was where this miner's earnings came from.
A few years ago, BHP was primarily an iron ore miner, with some other operations providing supplemental earnings. Today, the company is a different beast. Over the six months to 31 December 2025, BHP made more money from its copper operations than from iron ore. BHP reported underlying earnings (EBITDA) worth US$7.5 billion from its iron ore division over that period, behind its copper division's US$7.95 billion.
That copper division is firing on all cylinders, with that US$7.95 billion up from US$5.01 billion over the same period in 2024.
Image source: Getty Images
Why I might buy BHP shares in 2026
Even more pleasingly, BHP's copper expansion has given the company a windfall of other commodities. Copper mining is a process that tends to produce significant byproducts. Alongside copper, BHP reported a big increase in production of gold, silver, and uranium over the back half of last year. Its South Australian copper mines produce 400,000 ounces of gold over the period alone, putting it in the top five ASX producers. It also contributed 5% of the entire global supply of uranium over the period.
BHP is turning itself into one of the world's most diversified miners. Additionally, it focuses on commodities that will be essential to future-facing technologies like electrification and nuclear power generation.
It's likely that these commodities will see sustained demand over the decades ahead. And BHP is positioning itself to be at the forefront of this trend. As such, I am rethinking my general distaste for ASX mining shares on these latest numbers. And if I had to pick an ASX miner to invest in today, it would probably be BHP shares.
