Mining giant BHP has joined forces with seven leading Japanese industrial and technology firms to launch a landmark demonstration project aimed at tracing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the copper supply chain.
The project brings together BHP, Mitsubishi Materials Corporation (MMC), NTT DATA Japan, NTT Circurust, FCM Corporation, Sambo Metals, SENSHU ELECTRIC, and Yasaka Electric Wire.
Together, the consortium seeks to establish a transparent, end-to-end value chain from raw material extraction to final product deployment, utilising a mass balance credit model.
While mining companies have made significant strides in lowering operational emissions, such as BHP powering its Escondida copper mine in Chile with 100 per cent renewable electricity, tracking and passing these environmental attributes through multi-stage processing remains a critical industry challenge.
Due to the complex nature of smelting, refining, and manufacturing, lower-emissions attributes are frequently diluted or lost before reaching the end user.
Under the pilot project, copper concentrate from BHP’s Escondida mine will be smelted and converted into wire rod by MMC in Japan.
Intermediate processors FCM Corporation and Yasaka Electric Wire will turn the rod, supplied via Sambo Metals, into finished copper cables.
These low-emissions cables will ultimately be installed at an Amazon Japan logistics facility distributed through SENSHU ELECTRIC.
Throughout the process, NTT Circurust and NTT DATA Japan will test and verify information-transfer systems to guarantee full traceability, alignment with mass balance guidelines, and complete transparency.
BHP, which has slashed its operational Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 36 per cent from its fiscal 2020 baseline as of June 2025, sees the initiative as an important step towards its net-zero 2050 target.
By testing practical mechanisms to trace environmental credentials from Chilean mines to Japanese infrastructure, the partnership aims to create scalable standards for sustainable materials. If successful, the framework could accelerate the global adoption of verified low-emissions commodities across the renewable energy and construction sectors.
