At the company’s Perth annual general meeting today, both Mackenzie and chairman Jac Nasser again apologised for the dam collapse, which has killed at least 11. Another eight people are missing and over 600 lost their homes.

Mackenzie said what he witnessed during his trip to Brazil last week was truly heartbreaking and everyone at the company was overwhelmed with sadness.

He thanked people in Australia and the UK for messages of support.

“My family and I are enormously grateful. Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” a visibly emotional Mackenzie said.

“I’ve been particularly struck by the support shown to us by the Australian business community.

“It has made me even prouder to call Australia home.”

Former BHP execs Alberto Calderon (now CEO of Orica) and Graham Kerr (South32 CEO) have publicly expressed their condolences to Mackenzie and BHP over the past week.

Mackenzie said he was grateful for the moral support.

"But I’m certainly grateful to Qantas who were able to get me to Brazil a bit more quickly than I might otherwise have got, and ensure that there was no hold-ups along the way," he said.

"So I think Team Australia has been at my back, which I really like."

In a marathon meeting, shareholders praised Mackenzie’s leadership and passed on condolences to the company, but the board still faced tough questions on Samarco, climate change, remuneration and the balance sheet.

On Samarco, Nasser admitted there wasn’t much more the company could add but he did say that the 2013 report that apparently warned of issues was unrelated to what actually occurred. 

He pledged that the results of an external report would be made public.