BHP's revenue from continuing operations rose 3.0 per cent to $US44.3 billion, dampened by the impacts of Cyclone Veronica in Western Australia, resource headwinds and unplanned outages in the first half of the year. Strong iron ore prices helped deliver $11.1 billion in pre-tax earnings for the segment, which was nearly half of the $23.2 billion in pre-tax earnings achieved across the group. Exceptional losses associated with the Samarco incident eased to $US818 million from $US5.2 billion a year ago. BHP's ASX-listed shares dropped by as much as 1.66 per cent to $35.65 within the first 30 minutes of trade on Tuesday, and were still down by 0.57 per cent at $36.045 by 1315 AEST.