BHP boss has bonus slashed after death in Australian mine
The boss of BHP, one of the world’s largest miners, had his bonus slashed last year after a death at one of the company’s Australian coal mines.
Chief executive Andrew Mackenzie was paid $3.5m (£2.8m) in the last financial year, down by more than $1.1m. $1.3m of his pay was a performance-related bonus.
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Mackenzie can earn a maximum of $13.1m a year.
The lower bonus came after the death of Allan Houston, a worker at the Saraji coal mine in Queensland on New Year’s Day last year.
“After a lengthy and thorough investigation, we could not determine the direct cause of the incident but the investigation identified several areas for improvement, which we shared across the organisation,” Mackenzie said.
“He remains in our thoughts as do his colleagues, family and friends.”
Earlier this year the BHP boss said he would “stick up for globalisation” as trade tensions threatened to eat into the company’s sales.
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The company is largely reliant on China – the biggest importer of commodities in the world. The country’s construction sector has started taking hits from the trade war with China.
“Economically this is causing disruption and the partial unraveling of global supply chains,” Mackenzie said last month. “We’re not completely immune to some form of downturn and that’s why we’re nervous.”