London, May 18, 2026, 09:02 (BST)
Anglo American shares fell in early London trade on Monday after the miner agreed to sell its Australian steelmaking coal business to Dhilmar for up to $3.875 billion, a deal that helps clear the way for its planned merger with Teck Resources but leaves part of the payout tied to future coal prices. The stock traded at 3,739.5 pence, down 2.44%, market data showed.
The deal matters now because Anglo is trying to finish a long-promised clean-up of its portfolio before combining with Teck, a merger designed to tilt the group hard toward copper. Copper has become the prize metal for big miners because it is used in power grids, electric vehicles and data centres.
Anglo said Dhilmar will pay $2.3 billion upfront, with as much as $1.575 billion more through an earnout, a deferred payment that depends on future coal prices. Chief Executive Duncan Wanblad called it a “major step” in simplifying the portfolio and said the transaction would “complete our exit” from steelmaking coal, the type of coal used to make steel. Anglo American
The shares also fell into a weak market. The pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.7% at 602.52 as inflation worries and geopolitics kept pressure on equities, so the move was not just a read on the coal sale.
The transaction revives a sale process that had gone sideways. Peabody Energy walked away from a $3.78 billion agreement for the same Australian coking-coal assets last year after a fire at Moranbah North, and Anglo has kept pursuing arbitration over that collapse. A material adverse change, the clause Peabody invoked, is a contract escape route for a buyer after a big event damages the target business.
Peabody remains part of the story, but Teck is the bigger one for investors. Anglo and Teck have said their merger would create Anglo Teck, a Canada-headquartered critical-minerals group and a top-five copper producer, with more than 70% copper exposure.
There was another copper-related wrinkle on Monday. Anglo said a Chilean environmental tribunal had purported to set aside a 2021 permit for a Collahuasi project that includes a near-complete desalination plant, though the company said it did not currently expect an immediate hit to production.
But the cleaner story is not risk-free. The coal sale still needs regulatory clearances and pre-emption processes, while the earnout depends on coal markets staying strong enough to trigger payments. Any delay at Collahuasi, a weaker coal-price backdrop, or a tougher-than-expected regulatory path for the Teck deal would give investors fresh reasons to question the timetable.
For now, Anglo has put cash value on another asset it wanted out of the group. The market’s first reaction was colder: sell the stock, wait for completion, and keep watching copper.
