Anglo American looking for new buyer for coal mine; merger with Teck awaits clearance

Anglo American is working to restart its Moranbah North coal mine in Queensland, Australia, with a view to reauctioning its metallurgical coal business at the beginning of 2026, the year that could also see its merger with Teck Resources into one of the five largest copper producers become effective, CEO Duncan Wanblad told during the Oct. 9-10 FT Metals and Mining Summit.

Moranbah North, which was expected to produce 5.3 million mt of salable coal this year, was suspended on March 31 due to high carbon monoxide levels.

The incident did not constitute a Material Adverse Change, or MAC, given that no damage to the ore body occurred, according to Anglo American. Yet it prompted coal producer Peabody Energy to terminate its $3.78 billion acquisition of Anglo American's coal business.

"We are going to, unfortunately, have to remarket the business. We'll just get the first coal coming out of Moranbah North, and then start the process again," Wanblad said at the FT summit.

He believes the mine is still recognized as a high-quality metallurgical coal asset in the marketplace. While admitting the coal price has changed since the deal with Peabody was inked in November 2024 -- sinking to $180-$185/mt, from $210/mt back then --- he added that "a strategic buyer would look at it through a different lens than the current spot price."

Industry starved of investments

Given that the metallurgical coal industry has been underinvested for many years and the possibility of green steelmaking technologies being available in the next two to three decades is lower than anybody thought it would be a few years ago, it has become clear that the world is going to rely heavily on coal, according to Wanblad.

"On that basis, the long-term fundamentals for steelmaking coal remain very good," Wanblad concluded.

In parallel with restarting the Moranbah North mine, Anglo American is also selling off nickel and diamond businesses. The sale of Nickel Brazil to MMG Singapore Resources is awaiting final approval from Europe, while the trade sale of diamond miner De Beers is moving into the second round.

The spin-offs are meant to prepare Anglo American to merge with Canadian natural resources company Teck Resources.

Agreed on a month ago, the deal will forge a Vancouver-headquartered critical minerals company -- Anglo Teck -- that, aside from its primary focus on copper, iron ore and zinc, would also consider boosting the production of associated minerals -- germanium, gallium and antimony -- at the zinc-lead Red Dog mine in Alaska that is developed by Teck Resources in liaison with its Trail Operations smelter in British Columbia, the Canadian company's CEO Jonathan Price told during the same FT summit.

According to Price, the US will be the chief buyer of that new production of germanium, gallium and antimony -- the three minerals the country has been banned from importing from China since late 2024 -- and so the offtake is largely guaranteed.

Extracting them will require extending mining at the Red Dog -- currently an open-pit -- underground and growing the Trail smelter's capacity, but the project's consistency with Canada's critical minerals and defense strategies is also reassuring.

Like-minded take on mining

The future company will generate $1.4 billion of EBITDA synergies largely thanks to the cooperation between the Collahuasi and Quebrada Blanca copper mines in Chile, Wanblad said, adding that aside from the commercial rationale, the proposition is also underpinned by the two companies thinking similarly about how mining should evolve.

"The world will continue to need mining for many, many decades to come. Mining just needs to be done in a different way from how it has been done in the last 100 years," he said.

The companies are now awaiting several statutory approvals, including from Invest in Canada and antitrust approvals in several jurisdictions. The merger could be cleared within 12 months or more.

Although Anglo American has committed to redomiciling to Canada as part of the merger, it will maintain its primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, which "makes an enormous amount of sense" given that the vast majority of its shareholders are in London, which, along with several existing and planned secondary listings, including in Toronto, Johannesburg and New York, will ensure Anglo Teck will have the broadest access to capital in this one of the most crucial junctures in mining's history, according to Wanblad.