Anglo American (LON: AAL) has held talks with technology companies interested in buying equity in the miner as a way of securing supplies of the metals that go into data centres, chief executive Duncan Wanblad told the Financial Times’ Metals and Mining Summit in London on Thursday.
Discussions were “absolutely being had”, Wanblad said, with the question from the tech side coming down to whether to lock in long-term offtake directly or take an equity position to secure a stake in future supply. No stakes have been taken, but there had been “deep expressions of interest” in doing so, he told the summit. “Given the scarcity issue that we’ve been speaking about, a lot of people are looking for ways to secure supply.”
Comex copper for December delivery traded near $6.52 a pound (about $14,370 a tonne) on Thursday, a third straight decline, after stronger than expected US inflation data put a Federal Reserve rate hike this month back on the table. Cash copper on the LME settled at a record $14,822 on Monday and the most-active Comex contract remains within 6% of its September 9 record settlement of $6.89.
A $90 billion copper company
Anglo’s New York-listed shares added 0.6% to $26.86 in early trade on Thursday for a market value of $58.0 billion, while Teck Resources (NYSE: TECK) edged up 0.3% to $64.96 and is worth $31.9 billion. At those prices Anglo-Teck would carry a combined nominal value of just under $90 billion, up from the $53 billion the two companies put on the merger of equals when it was announced in September last year.
Teck has been the better performer since, gaining 50% over the past 12 months against 36% for Anglo, and both are among the strongest diversified miners of 2026. The combination would rank alongside Glencore at $89 billion and Freeport-McMoRan at $99 billion.
Waiting on Beijing
The approaches come while Anglo waits on China for the final clearance on the merger with Teck, a combination that would rank among the five largest copper producers with annual output of about 1.2 million tonnes. Wanblad would not be drawn at the summit on what Chinese regulators want in return for approval, according to the FT.
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation has asked Anglo to commit to a steady flow of copper concentrate to Chinese smelters, including volumes sold through traders, as a condition for clearing the deal, Reuters reported on October 2. The remedies under discussion do not include asset sales. The combined group would control around 5% of global copper supply, well below the 10% to 15% thresholds that normally trigger competition concerns, but China refines up to 60% of the world’s copper cathode and is facing its worst feedstock shortage in decades. Canada, the EU, the US, Japan, Chile and South Korea have all signed off, and the parties still expect to close by March 2027.
Wanblad said in August that mining transactions now take “probably a little bit longer than they might have done five years ago”, with companies needing to allow 12 to 18 months for approvals, while rejecting the idea that regulation was making deals impossible to get done.
Nickel closure on the table
Anglo is also likely to shut its nickel business in Brazil if the European Union does not approve the planned $500 million sale of the assets to China’s MMG, Wanblad told the conference. The European Commission opened an in-depth probe of the deal late last year over fears MMG could divert ferronickel from Codemin and Barro Alto away from European stainless steel makers, and issued a formal warning last month. MMG has since proposed long-term European supply commitments.
Anglo’s Brazil chief operating officer Ruben Fernandes told a closed hearing in Brussels last week that MMG was the only credible buyer the company had identified and that a prohibition would leave it heading for care and maintenance as the pathway to closure.
The nickel sale and the Teck merger are the two remaining pieces of a portfolio simplification that also has Anglo seeking about $1 billion for De Beers.