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BHP Group has just hours to launch a blockbuster bid to buy smaller mining rival Anglo American — or put its audacious takeover plan on the shelf.

The proposal by the world’s biggest miner to spin off two units and then buy the remainder of Anglo would create a global copper behemoth, heralding the industry’s return to mega—deals after more than a decade. Anglo has already rejected two non-binding offers from BHP — the last worth $43-billion — and unveiled its own plans for a radical restructuring.

Unforeseen graphite market developments in 2023 cast a shadow on ASX-listed Syrah’s Balama graphite project’s sales and production momentum, while highlighting the company’s strategic position in global battery anode and natural graphite markets, chairperson Jim Askew said on May 24 at the company’s AGM. The lower production from Balama, in Mozambique, along with natural graphite sales and weighted average prices in 2023, compared with 2022, were impacted by synthetic graphite capacity expansion and government policy influence on the Chinese anode customer market, inhibiting Balama from achieving its full potential, he said.

While there are increasingly complex regulatory requirements governing the social obligations of mines, regulations are only catching up to what some mining companies are doing to benefit mine communities and stakeholders. Mining companies understand the need to obtain a so-called ‘social licence to operate’ from communities in an area, and many of them also conform to international regulations, such as stock exchanges’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting rules, as well as international norms and expectations in terms of their social obligations.

Municipalities share the risk of tailings dam failure with mines, consulting firm SRK Consulting has pointed out, noting that the latest global standards reiterate how municipalities must play an important role in the emergency response and recovery efforts after such incidents. Local government in South Africa has a legal responsibility for any disaster in its jurisdiction, imposed by the country’s Disaster Management Act and the Disaster Management Framework.

Amid challenging market conditions, junior coal miners in Africa face challenges in securing funding, with about 70% experiencing constraints in exploration and production owing to insufficient financing, said coal procurement and mining development company Alpha Resources and Investments CEO Selim Kaymak, citing statistics from a Mining Technology report. During a presentation at the Junior Mining Indaba on May 22, Kaymak discussed the implications of a challenging coal mining market for junior miners. In his presentation, he cited a Minerals Council South Africa statistic that junior coal miners are significant players in South African coal production, contributing up to 30% of South Africa’s overall output.

ASX-, JSE- and Aim-listed MC Mining has acknowledged the announcement made on May 22 by investment firm Goldway Capital Investment regarding an offer to compulsorily buy out certain ordinary shares in MC Mining following Goldway’s recent off-market takeover offer. The terms of the buy-out offer mirror those of the initial takeover offer. The consideration for the buy-out offer stands at A$0.16 a share.

Several of Anglo American’s big shareholders have said they support the company’s efforts to persuade BHP Group to change the structure of its takeover proposal or compensate for the risks it presents, before accepting any offer.

BHP has one week to convince its target of the value of its $49-billion acquisition plan, after Anglo announced on Wednesday it had rebuffed a third bid and agreed to extend a regulatory deadline. With the clock reset, discussions will center around BHP’s insistence that Anglo spin off majority stakes in South African platinum and iron ore units before the takeover can proceed.

When hydropower was being developed for South Africa’s gold-mining industry, the industry was going through a tough time and the research organisation of the day, the Chamber of Mines Research Organisation or COMRO, ceased to function in the form that it had for 30-odd years. Had COMRO continued with its intense hydraulics research through what was such an uncertain time that it merged the research organisation with the CSIR, water power could conceivably have been playing a much bigger role than it is now.

While there are increasingly complex regulatory requirements governing the social obligations of mines, regulations are only catching up to what some mining companies are doing to benefit mine communities and stakeholders. Mining companies understand the need to obtain a so-called ‘social licence to operate’ from communities in an area, and many of them also conform to international regulations, such as stock exchanges’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting rules, as well as international norms and expectations in terms of their social obligations.

Amid challenging market conditions, junior coal miners in Africa face challenges in securing funding, with about 70% experiencing constraints in exploration and production owing to insufficient financing, said coal procurement and mining development company Alpha Resources and Investments CEO Selim Kaymak, citing statistics from a Mining Technology report. During a presentation at the Junior Mining Indaba on May 22, Kaymak discussed the implications of a challenging coal mining market for junior miners. In his presentation, he cited a Minerals Council South Africa statistic that junior coal miners are significant players in South African coal production, contributing up to 30% of South Africa’s overall output.