Coal news and updates

Anglo takes further fertiliser writedown, sees coal deal by early 2025

A sign stands at the entrance to the offices of Anglo American Plc in the Marshalltown district of Johannesburg, South Africa, on Friday, Oct. 26, 2012. Anglo American Plc Chief Executive Officer Cynthia Carroll , the first woman, external hire and non-South African to hold the job, will quit after Anglo lost $14 billion in value in the more than five years she was in charge. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

LONDON, July 25 (Reuters) – Anglo American took a further $1.6 billion writedown on its costly British fertiliser project on Thursday, but the miner said it expects to reach a deal for the sale of its coal assets by early 2025, despite a fire at one of its mines.

CEO Duncan Wanblad is under pressure to boost returns to investors and demonstrate he can deliver on his May 14 plan to radically refocus the company on copper and iron ore, after fighting off a $49 billion takeover attempt from bigger rival BHP Group.

Wanblad pinned his approach on getting an early start with selling Anglo’s coking coal assets in Australia, but a fire at its Grosvenor mine threatened to set back the timing with a likely hit to the deal’s valuation.

Anglo said the company plans to conduct a two-stage auction process for the coal assets, including Grosvenor, adding that the mine would probably only resume operations under a new owner.

“There are so many interested potential buyers for this set of assets,” Wanblad told reporters.

“Our expectation is that hopefully by the end of this year, very early next year…we will have a deal,” he added.

Anglo’s shares were unchanged at the London market open.

The CEO said Anglo is still looking for partners at its Woodsmith fertiliser project in northern England, despite the impairment. It already wrote down $1.7 billion on the project a year ago.

The miner also said its nickel assets in Brazil have attracted interest from potential buyers.

“We have had inbound interest from a number of credible parties and we will be starting a formal process later this year,” a spokesperson told Reuters via email.

The company declared an interim dividend of $0.42 per share, down from $0.55 a year earlier and far below the record levels of 2021.

It posted a $672 million loss for the first half, mostly reflecting the impairment at Woodsmith, while core earnings or EBITDA of $5 billion was slightly lower than $5.1 billion a year earlier but above the $4.6 billion seen in an analysts’ consensus estimate.

Anglo cut diamond production by 19% during the first six months of the year amid lower prices. Production guidance at its De Beers unit was revised down to 23-26 million carats from 26-29 million to help preserve cash.