LONDON, March 21, 2026, 16:41 GMT.
Anglo American slid 3% on Friday, closing at 2,867 pence and trailing a sluggish London session as miners took the brunt of the selloff ahead of the weekend. The FTSE 100 shed 1.4%. “Britain was being squeezed between a rock and a hard place,” said AJ Bell’s head of financial analysis, Danni Hewson, citing heightened geopolitical tensions and renewed inflation worries. 1
Timing is tight for Anglo. Ana Sanches, who heads the miner’s Brazil operations, told Reuters this week that the company remains on track for final sign-off on its merger with Teck Resources “around the year-end”. Anglo is zeroed in on copper, premium iron ore, and crop nutrients. 2
The rate outlook darkened fast. J.P. Morgan is calling for the Bank of England to hike by 25 basis points in April, then deliver another increase in July, following the central bank’s signal that inflation might hit roughly 3.5% in the coming half-year. 3
Pressure swept across the board. European miners took the hardest hit Thursday—STOXX 600’s mining index slid 4.2%. Jack Allen-Reynolds at Capital Economics flagged the chance that policymakers might feel forced “towards getting on the front foot” if energy prices keep climbing. Copper is now a heavier contributor to profits at both BHP and Rio Tinto, pulling miner valuations closer to the pulse of global growth sentiment. 4
Anglo’s situation is a patchwork right now. Back in February, the miner reported a $3.7 billion loss, the result of another De Beers write-down. The dividend took a hit, dropping to $0.23 per share from the previous $0.64. Management is still unloading non-core assets, tightening the company’s lens on copper and iron ore. CEO Duncan Wanblad said he was “optimistic” a De Beers deal would get done this year. 5
Back in September, Anglo and Teck rolled out plans for a share-swap merger, putting 62.4% of the new entity under Anglo shareholders’ control. Teck’s side gave the green light in December. Now, it’s down to regulatory approvals before the tie-up can officially form what would become the world’s fifth-largest copper miner. 6
Output support is looking thin. Back in February, Anglo reported a 10% drop in 2025 copper production, down to 695,000 metric tons. For 2026, guidance came down too—now pegged at 700,000 to 760,000 tons, with the company citing weaker volumes from Collahuasi in Chile. 7
The risk to any rebound is obvious enough. Should the Middle East conflict continue to drive up energy prices, inflation might not cool, rate cuts get pushed back, and miners like Anglo reliant on industrial demand could take more hits. The IMF warns a sustained jump in energy costs would boost inflation and weigh on output. 8
