London, May 13, 2026, 10:03 BST
- Anglo American’s most recent delayed London print had the shares up 4.0% at 4,053p/4,055p, comfortably ahead of the FTSE 100’s 0.52% rise.
- Mining stocks surged alongside copper’s latest breakout, with Antofagasta, Rio Tinto and Glencore all climbing sharply in London trading.
- Bulls are calling Anglo’s Teck merger a more straightforward copper play. But for bears, it’s all about whether the company can pull off the deal, win over China’s antitrust regulators, and unload non-core assets.
Anglo American plc surged in London trading, with investors piling into copper plays again; this time, Anglo stands out as a clearer FTSE proxy for the theme. The most recent delayed quote had the stock up 156p, or 4.0%, while the FTSE 100 managed just a 0.52% gain. Notably, that’s a big gap for a miner that’s already in the crosshairs of merger-focused funds.
There’s no mystery behind the move. Copper climbed 1.59% on May 13 to $6.59 per pound, data from Trading Economics show, up over 8% for the month and hitting a record high in May. The surge comes as data-center construction, electrification trends, ongoing demand from China, and supply bottlenecks—including sulphuric acid shortages linked to the US-Iran conflict—continue to drive the market.
This point carries more weight for Anglo these days. The group is steering itself into a copper-centric direction with its proposed tie-up with Teck Resources, and at the same time, it’s offloading or spinning out operations that complicate its overall equity pitch. Moves in copper prices aren’t just about bumping up current profits—the market is assigning a premium to the portfolio Anglo is aiming to build.
The move wasn’t limited to Anglo American. Antofagasta jumped 4.2%, Anglo American gained 4.0%, Rio Tinto added 3.4%, and Glencore was up 3.2% in early London trading. Copper prices nearly touched a 2% increase, hitting fresh highs. As Hargreaves Lansdown market analyst Matt Britzman put it, the copper rally makes clear the AI push isn’t “just about chips and software”—there’s heavy demand from power grids, renewables, and data centres as well. Proactiveinvestors UK
Even so, Anglo had another bid in play. Management’s first-quarter update laid out a target window for closing the Teck deal—somewhere between September 2026 and March 2027—pending Chinese antitrust clearance and the usual closing hurdles. Copper output ticked up 1% to 170,400 tonnes for the quarter, while guidance on both output and unit costs stayed put. Here, “guidance” refers to the company’s own projections. Anglo American
The bullish view boils down to this: copper keeps climbing, guidance doesn’t budge, and the deal may hand shareholders a cleaner shot at the metal. Chief Executive Duncan Wanblad called the Teck pact a “pivotal moment,” promising investors north of 70% exposure to copper. The board flagged a planned $4.5 billion special dividend once the merger wraps up. Anglo American
The bear case has some teeth here. Copper prices can tumble just as quickly if supply fears ease or if China underwhelms. Anglo’s story isn’t all copper, either; coal, nickel, and De Beers are still in play. First-quarter numbers didn’t help: steelmaking coal production dropped 31%, nickel fell 7%. Investors are already pricing in a streamlined business, but the overhaul isn’t finished yet.
The deal-risk discount hasn’t disappeared. China’s sign-off is still pending, and until then, Anglo and Teck are still on their own. That’s important: those projected merger synergies and cost savings won’t mean much until they’re actually managing the assets as a single operation.
BHP tacked on another layer to the story. According to Reuters, Brandon Craig, set to take over as BHP CEO, said he’s eyeing growth after 2035—focusing on exploration, partnerships, and “bolt-on” acquisitions if they make sense value-wise. The company has already tried to scale up its copper business, making multiple runs at Anglo American, which spurned BHP’s $49 billion approach back in May 2024. Reuters
No new BHP offer is in play. Still, that’s the reason Anglo’s share price can swing more sharply than copper. Strategic pressure is getting priced into these rare copper assets—Teck’s situation on one flank, BHP’s track record on the other, while Rio Tinto and Glencore help pull the broader sector into this trade.
At this point, the share reaction makes sense. Anglo is behaving less like a classic diversified miner and more like a leveraged play on copper shortages—along with the merger actually getting done. The catch? The stock’s already baking in both outcomes. That works as long as copper keeps rising. But any setbacks—slower asset sales, weaker copper, a hiccup in the deal—leave less of a cushion.
