BHP has announced a new contract with Gallawinya, a Pilbara Traditional Owner business in Western Australia, which is set to supply up to 4,000 tyres a year for light vehicles and light trucks across Western Australia Iron Ore’s (WAIO) central Pilbara mining operations.
In the first half of FY2023, BHP has engaged with more than 80 Indigenous and Traditional Owner businesses directly, with a total spend of more than $120 million to Indigenous and Traditional Owner businesses through WAIO’s Project Rise initiative.
Under the contract, Gallawinya will initially supply tyres to BHP’s central Pilbara operations (Mining Area C, South Flank and Yandi) before potentially expanding to other WAIO’s mining sites including Jimblebar, Newman and Port Hedland.
BHP Head of Global Indigenous Procurement, Chris Cowan, said the Gallawinya contract represented a major step forward in a non-traditional supply area and would create social value opportunities including additional regional employment.
“We’re trying to find ongoing, longer term operational contracts to collaborate with Traditional Owner businesses, and this is a great example of that,” Mr Cowan said.
“What I particularly like about this one is, it’s demonstrating a new category of supply by a Traditional Owner business that we haven’t seen before, and it’s going to create social value back into the communities in which we operate.
“We hope to collaborate with our maritime team to bring tyres directly into Port Hedland to reduce the need to transport the tyres by road from Perth to the Pilbara. This will improve our carbon footprint as well as safety risk and performance.”
Gallawinya is a subsidiary of Nyamal owned and operated East West Pilbara Group, which employs more than ten people in the Pilbara, through its facilities at Port Hedland and Karratha.
The BHP supply contract will create more training and employment opportunities for Indigenous Australians.
Compared to the same period in 2022, to date WAIO has increased its year-to-date annual spend by around 62.5 per cent and thanks to Project Rise, is on track to deliver on its 2023 target of $225 million spend with Indigenous and Traditional Owner businesses, which will extend to $300 million in 2024.
