Anglo American Exits Coking Coal: $3.88bn Dhilmar Deal Clears Path to Teck Merger

FTSE-listed mining major Anglo American (AAL) announced at 09:00 BST on Monday 18 May 2026 the sale of its Australian steelmaking coal portfolio to UK-registered Dhilmar Limited for a cash consideration of up to US$3.875 billion. The transaction completes the company’s full exit from coking coal, accelerates the multi-year simplification programme launched in May 2024, and clears one of the final regulatory steps before the planned merger with Canada’s Teck Resources. Anglo American shares fell 2.6% in early Monday trading in London.

The structure

The transaction consists of two components. The first is an upfront cash payment of US$2.3 billion, payable by Dhilmar at completion. The second is a price-linked earn-out of up to US$1.575 billion, contingent on prevailing steelmaking coal prices over a defined post-completion period and representing approximately 41 per cent of the maximum consideration. Anglo American will use proceeds to reduce net debt; completion is expected in the first quarter of 2027, subject to customary competition clearances and pre-emption arrangements.

The Wanblad statement

Chief Executive Duncan Wanblad framed the disposal as the conclusion of a strategic chapter. “Our agreement for Dhilmar to acquire our steelmaking coal business in Australia is testament to the high quality of these assets and our people”, he said in the announcement. “Dhilmar’s leadership brings considerable experience of operating major mining assets, including in steelmaking coal, in Southeast Asia and Canada. We will work together with the Dhilmar team and with our workforce, local communities, government, customers, and partners to ensure a successful transition.”

Wanblad also placed the deal in its strategic context: “This agreement represents another major step in the simplification of our portfolio ahead of completing our merger with Teck. Through this transaction, we will complete our exit from steelmaking coal, delivering aggregate cash proceeds of up to US$4.9 billion, given the prior completion of the sale of our interest in the Jellinbah mine for approximately US$1 billion.”

The assets

The portfolio is concentrated in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, the world’s most important hard-coking-coal province. The principal mines included are Moranbah North (the underground operation at the centre of the disputed 2024 sale to Peabody Energy), Grosvenor (a long-life longwall asset whose operational ramp-up will materially affect the earn-out), Capcoal, Roper Creek, and the Dawson-related joint ventures. The mix of longwall underground and open-cut surface operations gives the Dhilmar buyer a portfolio with broad production-method diversification within a single high-quality coking province.

Who is Dhilmar

Dhilmar is a privately held, UK-registered mining company. Its leadership is led by Alexander Ramlie, an Indonesian mining executive who also sits on the board of commissioners of AMMAN Mineral, the operator of the Batu Hijau copper-gold mine in West Sumbawa, Indonesia. Dhilmar’s principal existing asset is the Éléonore gold mine in Quebec, acquired from Newmont Corporation in 2025 for US$795 million. The private capital structure permits a longer-duration view of the coal cycle than publicly listed peers can credibly maintain, given ESG-driven mandate pressures.

Anglo’s transformation

The Dhilmar deal is the culmination of a comprehensive portfolio restructuring announced in May 2024, when Anglo American responded to an unwanted approach from BHP Group with a defensive plan to exit diamonds (De Beers), platinum group metals, nickel and coking coal, refocusing on copper, premium iron ore and crop nutrients. The merger with Teck Resources, agreed in September 2025 as a merger of equals, will create a copper-and-critical-minerals company with a market capitalisation north of US$53 billion. The Peabody arbitration, ongoing after Peabody’s 2024 withdrawal from a prior deal on the same assets, continues in parallel.

European read

For European institutional investors, the deal carries two significant signals. First, the public mining majors are pursuing irreversible exits from thermal and metallurgical coal, with capital rotating toward critical minerals essential to the energy transition – particularly copper, where global supply remains structurally short. Second, the buyer-side: private capital is consolidating coal assets that no longer fit public-market mandates. The structural shift from public to private ownership of coal will accelerate, with consequences for transparency, climate disclosure, and ultimately for the pace at which the assets are eventually wound down. The next chapter of mining is being written in copper boardrooms, but the previous chapter is closing in private vehicles like Dhilmar.