9 December 2024
Anglo American plc is one of the world’s largest mining companies. Founded in 1917, it is headquartered in London, United Kingdom and has over 100,000 permanent employees. The company’s mining operations and extensive pipeline of growth projects are located in southern Africa, South America, Australia, North America and Asia. Its portfolio of mining businesses spans precious metals and minerals.
Business units:
What they do
Exploration
Their success depends upon a constant supply of world class mineral deposits. They must represent resources capable of being economically extracted, and they obtain them either through their own exploration or by the acquisition of mineral deposits found by others.
Mining, processing and smelting
At the forefront of the mining industry for over 90 years, they mine iron ore and manganese, metallurgical and thermal coal, copper, nickel, platinum and diamonds.
Mining and technology
Mining and Technology is an in-house resource, providing multidisciplinary, world-class technical skills as well as research and technology development capabilities.
Where they operate
Europe: Their head office has been in London since 1999 when Luxembourg-headquartered Minorco merged with Anglo American Corporation of South Africa to form Anglo American plc. Their primary listing is on the London Stock Exchange. Their non-managed subsidiary De Beers also has a corporate office in London along with the various companies involved in the purchasing, selling and marketing of rough diamonds, including The Diamond Trading Company.
Africa: Although they have had a global presence for many years, the majority of their operations are in southern Africa. Their roots are in South Africa where the company was first formed in 1917. Their secondary listing is on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Their thermal coal, iron ore and platinum businesses have operations in South Africa. They have a corporate office in Johannesburg. They also have projects or operations in Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Asia Pacific: They have a significant presence in Australia through their metallurgical coal business, which is Australia’s fourth biggest producer of coal and second largest exporter of metallurgical coal. They also have manganese operations in Australia through their subsidiary Samancor Manganese, which is the world’s largest producer of seaborne manganese ore. They have a corporate office in Beijing and India, and these offices support business development opportunities in the region.
South America: Their involvement in South America began in the 1970s and now they have operations in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, as well as two major copper projects under consideration in Peru. Their copper operations in Chile and their ferronickel and iron ore operations in Brazil are supported by corporate offices in Santiago, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. In Colombia they have a 33% share of the world's largest open pit coal mining operation, Cerrejón, while in Venezuela; they own 91.4% of ferronickel operation Loma de Niquel.