BHP warns Australian mining not ready for low-cost competitors
The boom in demand from China’s industrialization is now “past the period of aggressive growth,” BHP’s Australia President said.
Mining giant Anglo American Plc is shrinking its trading operations as part of a restructure unveiled as it fought off a bid from rival BHP Group Ltd. earlier this year.
Around 10 people in Anglo American’s London and Singapore offices have left the firm in recent weeks as their roles have been cut, according to people familiar with the matter. The departures include head of metals origination Sebastian Castelli and head of structured origination Mark Sainsbury.
The miner also announced internally that it will no longer enter into long-term deals to buy commodities that it doesn’t already produce, according to the people, who declined to be identified as the matter isn’t public.
Anglo is slimming its operations after BHP’s takeover attempt, which would have created a commodities powerhouse. BHP eventually walked away from the deal, but the move forced Anglo to accelerate an overhaul of its business, including plans to offload its platinum business and to exit coal, diamonds and nickel.
It’s now re-focusing on key commodities and trimming cost-heavy business units. A spokesperson for Anglo American declined to comment on the recent moves. Castelli and Sainsbury didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Anglo led other mining majors in building out a substantial commodity trading book over the past few years, seeking to capture some of the massive profits that firms like Glencore Plc get from buying, storing and selling everything from oil to gas and metals.
That meant hiring specialist traders known as “originators” tasked with striking deals to secure long-term offtake of materials. In Anglo’s case, the company made a multi-year prepayment for cathodes from Capstone Copper Corp.’s Mantoverde project, a former Anglo American asset. It also invested $19 million in Canada Nickel Company Inc., which came with an offtake for nickel, iron and chromium.
Now that the Anglo American is exiting nickel and cutting costs, it’s scaling back the trading origination unit — housed within its marketing division — and no longer getting into such long-term deals.
Anglo traded 444,000 tons of third-party copper sales in 2023, equivalent to just over half of what it mines itself. It also expanded into battery metals, liquefied natural gas and quantitative trading.
(By Archie Hunter, Thomas Biesheuvel and Jessica Zhou)
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