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Anglo American appoints Bruce Cleaver CEO of De Beers

27 May 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

(Reuters) – Global mining company Anglo American Plc said it appointed Bruce Cleaver as chief executive of its diamond mining unit De Beers Group, after previous CEO Philippe Mellier decided to step down.

De Beers, the world’s largest diamond producer by value, will remain part of Anglo American’s operations even after a radical restructuring of the latter, in the belief that surging Chinese and Indian demand for diamonds will outstrip dwindling supply.

Cleaver, previously group director of strategy and business development, will take over the role on July 1, the company said.

Cleaver, 51, was first appointed to De Beers’ board in 2008 and served as its co-acting CEO in 2010 prior to Mellier’s appointment.

Anglo American has an 85 percent stake in De Beers.

 

(Reporting by Mamidipudi Soumithri in Bengaluru; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi and Sunil Nair)

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South32 considering buyout of Anglo American manganese unit

18 February 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

SYDNEY (Reuters) – South32 could be among the first to buy assets placed on the block this week by South Africa’s Anglo American, with the Australian company saying it was interested in its manganese unit.

The two companies share a manganese mining and smelting business located in Australia and South Africa, with Anglo American owning 40 percent of the division.

RBC last year valued South32’s stake in manganese at around $1.8 billion, though that was before the metal halved in price.

“As a JV partner with a deep understanding of their value, we would be a buyer if the price is right,” a South32 spokeswoman said in an emailed statement, confirming a report in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper website.

News of the interest from South32, the diversified minerals group spun out of BHP Billiton last year, comes as Anglo American turns to widespread divestment to shore up a heavily indebted balance sheet.

South32 indicated negotiations had already started to acquire Anglo American’s manganese business.

“We have a good relationship with our joint venture partner and they’ve communicated their intentions,” the statement said.

Manganese can be found in drink cans to improve resistance to corrosion. Ahead of Anglo American unveiling plans this week to cut net debt in half, South32 had been mentioned as a potential buyer of Anglo American’s niobium business.

Anglo American on Feb. 16 detailed a drastic plan to hack and slash its sprawling empire of mining assets, paring it back to diamonds, copper and platinum.

Any acquisition, though, would come at a tough time for manganese producers.

Weak prices for the metal have already led South32 to suspend mining at its Hotazel mining division in South Africa This has removed around 700,000 tonnes of manganese ore production from the global supply chain.

South32 shares were nearly 5 percent higher at A$1.26 in late trading on Thursday, double the gains of the wider market. But the stock has still lost nearly half its value since listing in May.

 

(By James Regan. Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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South Africa’s Amplats sees FY profit plunging on impairments

25 January 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s Anglo American Platinum Ltd (Amplats) on Monday flagged a sharp fall in full-year earnings due to impairments, write-downs and restructuring costs in bid to survive plunging in commodity prices.

Headline earnings per share, the main gauge of profit that strips off certain one-off items, is expected to be down to between 25 cents and 55 cents compared with earnings of 301 cents a year earlier.

Amplats, a division of Anglo American Plc, is undergoing tough cost cutting to deal with plunging prices and low demand for its precious metals and the effects of a crippling five-month strike in 2014 at its biggest operation.

The top platinum producer said the fall in profits was due to efforts to make the business more efficient, cash generative and lean by reorganising operations and structure.

Anglo American, the world’s fifth-biggest miner by market value, is on a drive to sell more assets and whittle its business down to three divisions to cope with sharp fall in commodity prices.

Amplats said headline earnings per share would have risen to 412 cents if it had excluded the impact of the restructuring costs, a loan to its joint-venture partner Atlatsa and the increase in inventory.

 

(Reporting by Zandi Shabalala; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

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Anglo American to sell Australian Callide coal mine

20 January 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

callide coal mine

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Global mining firm Anglo American will sell its Callide coal mine in Australia to Batchfire Resources, it said on Wednesday.

“The transaction will be effected via a sale of shares in the subsidiary companies holding Anglo American’s interest in Callide,” the company said in a statement.

Anglo said the terms of the deal were confidential.

The company announced a major restructuring in December, saying it would offload three-fifths of its assets as it attempts to tackle sliding commodities prices.

Callide, an open pit thermal coal mine that produced 5.6 million tonnes in the first nine months of 2015, is one of four Australian coal mines the company plans to sell.

Anglo announced last month it would sell its majority interest in Dartbrook coal mine to Australian Pacific Coal Ltd in a deal worth up to A$50 million ($34 million).

The company is scheduled to give more details on its future global portfolio in February.

The overhaul at Anglo American highlights the scale of the fallout from the commodities slide, which is forcing mining companies across the board to cut jobs, investment and costs.

($1 = 1.4571 Australian dollars)

 

(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; editing by Susan Thomas)

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Anglo American defers platinum investment decisions, cuts diamond output

22 October 2015 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Mining group Anglo American said on Thursday it was postponing major project investment decisions at its platinum unit until at least 2017 and had cut diamond production in the face of soft demand.

In its production report for the three months to the end of September, the company said Anglo American Platinum’s output rose 14 percent to 614,300 ounces compared with 541,000 ounces in the same period last year, when many of its mines were rebooting after a five-month strike.

The decision to defer any major project plans for platinum until at least 2017 comes after the company reached an agreement to sell its labour-intensive South African assets to Sibanye Gold and as the white metal’s price trades near seven-year lows.

Anglo American, like its peers, is grappling with sliding commodity prices across the board, and exploration and evaluation spend for the quarter was down 34 percent to $70 million.

“Diamond production decreased by 27 percent to 6.0 million carats, following the decision to reduce production to better reflect current trading conditions,” the company said.

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