Miningweb: How copper’s golden lure united two of mining’s quiet contenders

Key topics:Anglo and Teck merge to form $50B copper mining giantDeal creates one of the world’s largest copper producersMerger framed as equal, HQ to remain in Vancouver.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Dinesh Nair, Jacob Lorinc, Jack Farchy and Thomas Biesheuvel.For years, it was the most obvious deal in the global mining industry, but one that no one could quite pull off. Then in mid-2024, executives at Teck Resources Ltd. and Anglo American Plc started talking about a tie-up of their two huge — and neighboring — copper mines high up in the Atacama desert.About a year after they began, those conversations reached their culmination on Tuesday: the two miners announced a deal to combine not just their Chilean copper mines, but their entire companies. It’s one of the largest ever deals in the sector and will create a new copper mining colossus worth more than $50 billion.The logic of a deal to put together the Quebrada Blanca mine, controlled by Teck, and the Collahuasi mine, where Anglo has a 44% stake, was plain. Teck CEO Jonathan Price on Tuesday said it could create one of the world’s largest copper mines at a time when investors are clamoring for the metal, meaning the deal represented “the most compelling industrial synergies available in the industry today.”But getting to Tuesday’s announcement required a delicate dance to manage numerous challenges – from difficult egos and political interests to a tussle about the location of the combined company’s headquarters, according to several people involved in the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The first conversations between the two sides had taken place in 2023, when Teck was fending off a hostile bid from Glencore Plc, two of the people said. But they really began in earnest in mid-2024, after Teck completed the sale of its coal assets..Read more:.Miningweb: Anglo and Teck to merge into copper giant - definitive defence against BHP, Glencore.The miners first started exploring a potential deal to combine the Chilean copper assets – which sit a few kilometers away from one another in the high altitude of the Atacama desert. Processing high-grade ore from Collahuasi at Quebrada Blanca could add 175,000 tons of copper production a year for an investment of just $1.9 billion, according to the two companies.But the discussions really picked up steam only in recent months, the people said. Anglo – mired in its own attempt to fend off a hostile bid from rival BHP Group – had initially been more focused on its own reorganization. Over time, though, the two sides began to talk more seriously, and the conversations morphed from a deal for the Chilean assets to a deal for the entirety of Teck. Once Anglo had completed a spin-off of its platinum business in June, the talks went into overdrive, the people said.Price, the CEO of Teck, established a cordial relationship with his counterpart at Anglo, Duncan Wanblad, over the course of snatched discussions at a series of industry conferences. There were also conversations between the two companies’ chairs, as well as at the level of their internal deals teams..Many of the meetings happened in the offices of the boutique investment banks advising each side, with Ardea working for Teck and Centerview for Anglo.Wanblad on Tuesday said that there had been “on and off conversations for the last year or so” about combining the assets. “But in the last few months, you know, it became increasingly clear to us that actually there was an enormous amount of value in the combination of the two businesses per se, in addition to the value that can be won from the asset synergies.”While there were several moments when people close to the deal thought that talks might break down, including in the days before the announcement, the two sides pushed on — even through operational setbacks like the collapse of Anglo’s deal to sell its coal mines to Peabody Energy Corp., and troubles at Teck’s key Chilean project.Anglo and Teck were mindful to avoid the pitfalls that had already stymied some of the industry’s biggest players as they sought to secure a slice of the two companies’ prized Chilean copper, the people said.For example, Glencore Plc – also a shareholder in Collahuasi – fired the starting gun on the race for Teck in 2023 with a $23 billion bid for the Canadian company. But its approach fell foul of Norman Keevil, whose family has been involved with Teck for six decades and who has an effective controlling stake through his holding of supervoting class A shares.In Anglo’s talks with Teck, by contrast, the London-headquartered company was careful to secure Keevil’s blessing. While the two sides initially disagreed about where the combined company’s headquarters would be, they eventually settled on Vancouver after Keevil made clear his opposition to a deal that would see Teck leave Canada, two of the people said. Keeping the firm Canadian was a driving motivation for the 87-year-old, as he seeks to secure his legacy.The Teck side was also keen that the deal should be presented as a “merger of equals” rather than a takeover of Teck by Anglo, several of the people said. While Anglo shareholders will have the majority of the combined company and Anglo CEO Wanblad will run it, half of the board will be nominated by Teck and Teck’s chair Sheila Murray will continue in the same role at the combined company.Keevil on Tuesday pledged his support for the deal, saying the deal was “bringing together two respected, 100-year-old companies into a single world-class mining one, headquartered here in Canada.” Anglo and Teck also learnt a lesson from the failed $49 billion bid by BHP Group, the world’s largest miner, for Anglo last year. The government of South Africa – key to Anglo’s history as well as its shareholder base – bridled at not having been consulted, and BHP walked away from the deal..Read more:.Miningweb: Anglo American to acquire Teck, creating more than $50bn mining giant.Anglo and Teck were careful to keep all key governments informed of their discussions, some of the people said. The prime ministers of Canada and the UK, Mark Carney and Keir Starmer, were both kept in the loop. The combined company will continue to have its primary listing in London, even if the city will not be its headquarters..“The industrial logic has always been there,” said George Cheveley, a portfolio manager at Ninety One UK Ltd., which holds shares in both companies. “The harder part of this deal has always been working out how to combine the management teams and the companies.”There may still be a tricky road ahead. Both sets of shareholders must vote on the deal, and many mining industry observers are expecting other companies to enter the fray with bids for Teck, Anglo, or both. “Anglo and Teck have made the first move,” said Tony White, partner at MKP Advisors, a merger arbitrage specialist. “But the contest for control of these copper assets may not be over.”.© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Miningweb: How copper’s golden lure united two of mining’s quiet contenders

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