Australian company and its partner Vale unleashed largest spill of mining waste in history

The mining company BHP has said it hopes to secure a $25.7bn (£20bn) settlement over the 2015 Samarco disaster , when the collapse of a dam left at least 19 people dead, 700 homeless and spread unprecedented levels of pollutants across the rivers and landscape of Brazil.

BHP said it had offered the settlement to the Brazilian authorities in partnership with fellow miner Vale, its 50:50 joint venture partner in a local subsidiary, Samarco.

Panel of nearly 100 countries to draw up guidelines for industries that mine raw materials used in low-carbon technology

A UN-led panel of nearly 100 countries is to draw up new guidelines to prevent some of the environmental damage and human rights abuses associated with mining for “critical minerals”.

Mining for some of the key raw materials used in low-carbon technology, such as solar panels and electric vehicles, has been associated with human rights abuses, child labour and violence, as well as grave environmental damage .

All-share proposal had potential to be one of biggest deals in sector for decade but deemed ‘opportunistic’

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The board of Anglo American, the London-listed mining company, has rejected a “highly unattractive” £31bn takeover approach from its Australian rival BHP.

BHP’s all-share proposed offer for Anglo American had the potential to be one of the biggest deals in the global mining sector for a decade but has attracted criticism from Anglo’s shareholders as being too low and “highly opportunistic”.

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Miner Anglo American has rebuffed a takeover proposal from its larger rival BHP Group , declaring that the £31.1bn offer is “opportunistic” and “significantly” too low.

The Board has considered the Proposal with its advisers and concluded that the Proposal significantly undervalues Anglo American and its future prospects.

“Anglo American is well positioned to create significant value from its portfolio of high quality assets that are well aligned with the energy transition and other major demand trends.

With copper representing 30% of Anglo American’s total production, and with the benefit of well-sequenced and value-accretive growth options in copper and other structurally attractive products, the Board believes that Anglo American’s shareholders stand to benefit from what we expect to be significant value appreciation as the full impact of those trends materialises.

The fact that the shares are trading just above what BHP is offering suggests one of two things – either BHP is going to up its offer or sweeten the deal in some way, or a second offer comes forward from another diversified miner like Glencore.

The deal premium feels relatively low, particularly in the context of recent M&A offers and the heightened complexity hence something above £30 per share could be likely to get it done.

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Shareholders in the mining firm are unimpressed by the offer as it stands but what happens next could be interesting

In theory, Anglo American has been a sitting duck for a takeover bid for about a decade. Its share price has lagged behind that of other big miners and successive efforts to sharpen a sprawling portfolio have underwhelmed. The last news, at the end of 2023, was production delays that sent the shares down 20% in a day.

In practice, the same complexities, plus deep entanglement in South African politics, have served as a deterrent to a bid. Anglo was seen as too fiddly. But here comes BHP, the Australian giant of the sector, with a proposal to cut through the noise and get to the assets it would like to own, primarily Anglo’s copper mines in Peru and Chile and, to a lesser extent, its iron ore projects in Brazil and metallurgical coal in Queensland.

Offer of £31bn could create world’s biggest copper miner but adds to concerns about UK-listed firms leaving

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The Australian mining company BHP has set out plans for a £31bn takeover of rival Anglo-American in a deal that threatens to hasten the exodus of Britain’s largest firms from the City of London.

The proposed takeover of London-listed Anglo would rank as one of the biggest deals in the global mining industry in the last decade and comes as firms in the sector race to corner the market for copper, which is in high demand within the clean energy sector.

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• Full story: BHP moves to buy Anglo American mining group

IF BHP was to take control of Anglo , the combined company would produce around 10% of global output of copper, Reuters points out.

BHP’s proposal to Anglo could potentially flush out other rival suiters, who are also keen to own its copper mines.

“If BHP does indeed continue to pursue this deal, we would be surprised if other bidders do not emerge,” analysts from Jefferies LLC led by Christopher Lafemina said in an emailed note.

A bid that values Anglo at $42.6 billion — a 28% premium based on its latest share price — might get a deal “across the finish line,” they said.

Few economic and social benefits will come to Africans if processing is all done overseas, says Wanjira Mathai

Africa must take greater control in the industries it supplies with raw materials to lift its people from poverty and seize its own destiny in a low-carbon world, one of the continent’s leading environmentalists has urged.

Wanjira Mathai, the managing director for Africa and global partnerships at the World Resources Institute thinktank, said much more of what the continent produced must be processed and made use of close to where it is produced, if the world is to shift to a low-carbon footing.

Jakarta hopes the industry is the ticket to becoming a developed nation. But there are fears the toll on the environment – and people’s lives – will be too high

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Standing chest-deep in the Molucca Sea, just outside the billowing smokestacks of the world’s largest nickel industry, Upin adjusts his mask and dives. Members of his people, the Bajau, have been known to stay underwater for more than 10 minutes but Upin resurfaces shortly. He hauls a rugged disc of metal over the side of his dugout canoe.

“Since the factories arrived, there has barely been any fish to catch,” he says and grimaces towards the opaque water.

Above: Upin steers his boat with wife Jenni and son Riski past nickel factories in Morowali. Since the factories opened, their drinking water has been polluted and fish is no longer abundant. – All images by Per Liljas
Below: Open cut nickel mining leads to erosion and sediment sludge in local waterways.

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