It comes after The West Australian reported today that management consulting firm McKinsey and Company had completed a review of the business and recommended job cuts of up to 3000, or 20% of the division's workforce.

A BHP spokeswoman would not confirm the 3000 figure this morning.

"BHP Billiton Iron Ore regularly undertakes improvement initiatives and organisational reviews as part of an ongoing focus on productivity and cost reduction, and we have engaged external consultants to assist with this process," she said.

"This focus on productivity is not new. It is about continuing to safely improve our business and ensuring we are a competitive, world-class operation.

"We have been open with our employees about the work being done to improve productivity, and the review, and we hold regular all employee town hall meetings and question and answer sessions with the business leaders as a matter of course."

It comes after the miner confirmed job cuts at its head office earlier this month.

It was reported that 100 positions were cut, but BHP would not confirm numbers.

BHP has had a renewed focus on productivity improvements since CEO Andrew Mackenzie took over last May.

Productivity improvements in the iron ore division have allowed the company to have fewer staff than planned at the new Jimblebar mine and improve full-year guidance by 10 million tonnes to 217Mt.

Mackenzie recently said that group-wide productivity gains were expected to total $US5.5 billion ($A5.8 billion) by the end of the current financial year.

BHP shares were last trading 0.4% higher at $A36.59.