Five years ago, BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) shares were catching plenty of attention from ASX passive income investors.
That's because the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) mining giant kicked off 2022 by paying an all-time high fully franked interim dividend.
And BHP's final 2022 dividend was second only to the record high 2021 final payout, spurred by soaring iron ore prices at the time.
While the next three years saw the BHP dividend decline each year, the miner's FY 2026 dividend payouts reversed that trend, climbing 41.6% from 2025.
So, if you'd invested $10,000 in BHP shares in five years ago, just how much passive income would you already have received?
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Investing $10,000 in BHP shares for passive income
Five years ago, on 17 September 2021 you could have picked up BHP stock for $34.87 per share.
So, for $10,000 you could have bought 286 BHP shares with enough change left over for a pizza.
On Thursday, the ASX mining giant was trading for $60.37 a share. Meaning those 286 shares are now worth $17,266.
Those are some tidy capital gains.
As for that passive income, if you'd owned the stock since September 2021, you would have received the last 10 BHP dividend payouts totalling $13.583 per share.
And those 286 BHP shares you bought for $10,000 would already have returned $3,885 in passive income.
Why is the BHP dividend back on the rise?
The 41.6% increase in the FY 2026 BHP dividend payouts was supported by a stronger than expected iron ore price and a surging copper price.
On the copper front, while production slipped 3% year on year to 1.953 million tonnes, the miner's average realised price of US$5.74 per pound was up 35% from FY 2025.
This led to a 48% year on year increase in underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) from its copper division to US$18.2 billion. And it marked the first year where copper beat out iron ore on the earnings front, with the red metal contributing 54% contribution of BJP's total underlying EBITDA of US$32.9.
And copper should continue to be a strong earner for the Aussie mining giant over the long-haul.
According to BHP:
Copper fundamentals remain attractive. Demand is expected to grow from ~34 Mtpa today to >50 Mtpa by CY50, driven by traditional economic growth (home building, electrical equipment and household appliances), energy transition (renewables and electric vehicles) and digital (artificial intelligence and data centres).
On the bottom line, the big uptick in the passive income from BHP shares in FY 2026 came amid the miner's 30% increase in underlying profit, which climbed to US$13.2 billion.
