Anglo American sells Australian steelmaking coal assets for £810m

Anglo American has agreed the sale of its stake in a joint venture that operates two Australian steelmaking coal mines, as the miner readies to exit the market.

The FTSE 100 group told shareholders on Monday it would sell its 33 per cent stake in Jellinbah Group, which owns 70 per cent of the Jellinbah East and Lake Vermont mines, to Zashvin for cash proceeds of AUS$1.6billion (£810million).

Anglo is currently overhauling its operations in a simplification drive, which boss Duncan Wanblad said would see the group agree the sale of its remaining Australian steelmaking goal assets ‘in the coming months’.

The most recent sale to Zashvin, which is also a 33.3 per cent shareholder in Jellinbah, is expected to complete in the second quarter of 2025, subject to regulatory approval.

Zashvin’s James Xu of Zashvin said Jellinbah’s success has been ‘driven by robust partnerships’, noting Anglo’s ‘significant role in this journey’ and its ‘dedication to making this transaction smooth and efficient’.

Anglo American shares were up 1.1 per cent to 2,421.5p in early trading, having added around 23 per cent since the start of the year.

The 107-year-old mining giant’s 2024 has been dominated by a major strategy shake-up, which should see the FTSE 100 firm sell its nickel, coal, De Beers diamond and platinum businesses within two years.

Anglo’s strategy gamble follows its rejection of a £39billion takeover approach from Australian mining behemoth BHP.

Some analysts believe Anglo continues to be vulnerable to takeover approaches, with BHP still said to be interested.

Boss Wanblad said on Monday: ‘We are making excellent progress with our simplification of Anglo American to create an exciting and differentiated investment proposition focused on our world-class copper, premium iron ore and crop nutrients assets – all future-enabling products.

‘This highly cash generative and much higher margin portfolio will offer greater resilience through cycles and the benefit of significant high quality and well sequenced growth options, including a clear path to increase annual copper production to more than one million tonnes by the early 2030’s. ‘

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