Anglo American has upped the ante in its copper play with the blockbuster merger with Canadian copper miner Teck in one of the biggest mining deals in more than a decade.
The announcement of the proposed deal sent Anglo’s share up by as much as 11% on Tuesday, its biggest one-day gain in 16 months as investors celebrated the industrial logic of the deal and the $4.5bn dividend windfall.
The mooted all-share merger will create a $53bn group, with scale and world-class copper assets that will allow it to credibly claim a top-five spot among the world’s biggest producers of the critical mineral.
Anglo CEO Duncan Wanblad said that out of all the options on the table for Anglo, the merger with Teck was the most compelling for both sets of shareholders.
“As we looked through a whole set of options, this was an outstanding opportunity, one that delivers an extraordinary value for shareholders,” Wanblad said, speaking from Vancouver.
“We have a unique opportunity to bring together two highly regarded mining companies whose portfolios and capabilities are deeply complementary, while also sharing a common set of values,” he said.
Irrevocable support
Canadian billionaire Norman B Keevil, who is Teck’s controlling shareholder, has come out in support of the proposed $50bn tie-up with Anglo, two years after he put up a fierce fight to fend off a takeover bid by Glencore.
“We have irrevocable support from Dr Keevil and other A share shareholders, which comprise about 80% of the shareholding,” Teck CEO Jonathan Price said.
The support by the founding Keevil family goes a long way in getting the deal done on the Teck side.
“This agreed merger will begin a powerful next chapter, bringing together two respected, 100-year-old companies into a single world-class mining one, headquartered here in Canada,” Keevil said in a statement.
“With substantial operating synergies, production and growth opportunities in copper and other critical metals around the world, the merger will be a strong step forward for each of Anglo and Teck.”
Keevil has been a critic of Canadian mining majors selling to offshore, which might partly explain the structure of the Anglo deal, which will see the merged group have its headquarters in Vancouver.
For Wanblad, the proposed merger, which might be as many as 18 months from conclusion, presents an opportunity to scale up the group’s copper output, in fulfilment of the self-help plan he outlined after fending off two bids from BHP last year.
BHP, too, was attracted to Anglo’s copper assets.
Anglo will own 62.4% of the merged group, with Teck owning the rest in an outfit that will be called Anglo Teck.
The merged group will have its primary listing in London and secondary listings in Johannesburg and Canada, with a listing in New York also on the cards.
The mooted merger will propel the combined entity to the upper echelon of the world’s copper mining industry, with output bigger than that of Glencore and Rio Tinto.
SA-born Wanblad will be the enlarged group’s CEO, while Price will be his deputy. Anglo CFO John Heasley will retain his position under the combined group, while Teck will appoint the board chair, with members of the board equally split.
Anglo has embarked on a portfolio simplification process that saw the group hive off its platinum business and put up its diamonds and nickel businesses for sale.
Both companies pitched the deal as marrying complementary asset bases to build scale and save money. The combined entity estimates $1.4bn of adjacency upside from Collahuasi and Quebrada Blanca, more than 70% copper exposure to ride the electric vehicle (EV) wave and $800m of annual recurring cost-saving overlaps, or synergies.
About $500m of the savings will come from procurement, $100m from marketing-related opportunities and $200m from corporate business and other overheads.
Jobs lost
Price acknowledged that some jobs will be lost in the process as the merged group rids itself of duplicating roles.
The special $4.5bn dividend to Anglo shareholders sweetens the deal, which comes after Anglo pocketed more than R44bn in cash from the sale of its remaining shares in its platinum division.
The transaction could be seen as blunting the blow of the collapse of the Anglo deal to sell its Australian coal assets, where would-be buyer Peabody has invoked a merger & acquisition clause to back out of the transaction.
- Anglo cements its pivot to copper, a metal central to the green energy transition.
- The $50bn merger propels the group into the top tier of global copper producers.
- Shareholders get an immediate boost with an 8% share price rise and a $4.5bn dividend.
- The enlarged entity strengthens Anglo’s defences against takeover bids like BHP’s.
- Signals a broader industry shift as mining majors refocus on critical minerals.
Under Anglo’s growth blueprint, the focus is on its copper, premium iron ore and crop nutrient assets.
Teck itself, worth about $17bn, was last year a takeover target, with the merger now creating a sizeable group with scale to not only fend off further takeover bids but to pursue its own.
The Canadian miner has gone through its own asset simplificationprocess, having disposed of its steelmaking coal businesses to Glencore for $7bn last year.
Price said the Anglo merger was a natural progression of “our strategy and portfolio simplification, which created a platform to enable exactly this sort of transformative transaction”.
“Bringing together our world-class copper assets, premium iron ore and zinc operations, and an outstanding pipeline of high-quality growth projects provides enormous resiliency and optionality.
“This transaction will create significant economic opportunity in Canada, while positioning Anglo Teck to deliver sustainable, long-term value for shareholders and all stakeholders,” Price said.
By market close Anglo’s share price was up 8.99% to R588.88.
Update: September 9 2025
This article was updated with Anglo American’s share price move.
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