For years BHP and Rio Tinto, the world’s two most respected miners, moved in lockstep. Throughout the 2000s the dual Anglo-Australian giants rose on the again of China’s demand for commodities, notably iron ore. In 2007 they even explored a merger (regulators rebuffed the thought). Then, when the commodity supercycle crashed in 2015, each landed in buyers’ dangerous books, and have been pressured to shed belongings and pay down their money owed. Now, because the pair look to profit from the power transition, they’re inserting diverging bets on the longer term.
