The chief executive of Anglo American said the London-listed group had held talks with technology companies interested in buying equity stakes in the miner to secure metal supplies. Duncan Wanblad told the FT’s Metals and Mining Summit that discussions were “absolutely being had”, adding their logic was: “Can we secure long-term offtake directly or are there equity positions that we can take to secure a stake in that supply going forward.” No such equity stakes had yet been taken, but “there were certainly deep expressions of interest in potentially trying to do that”.
Tech companies use large amounts of copper, aluminium and steel, as well as rare earth metals, to manufacture products and power data centres running artificial intelligence. They are increasingly interested in understanding where those metals come from to ensure supply chain resilience amid a global race for resources. Cory Kos, vice-president of investor relations at Cameco, said companies such as Amazon and Microsoft were looking to buy physical uranium for next-generation nuclear reactors powering data centres, noting “big names” were exploring deals.
BHP chief financial officer Vandita Pant said the company was working with Amazon on lower-carbon copper, though equity investments were a “different issue”. Amazon this year agreed to buy copper from Rio Tinto’s Nuton venture for its US data centres. Wanblad declined to comment on Chinese regulatory approval for Anglo’s $50bn merger with Teck Resources, and said the company would likely shut its nickel business in Brazil if the EU did not approve the sale of assets to China’s MMG.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing