Anglo American said on Thursday it will review its assets after posting a 94% plunge in its annual profit hurt by weak prices and higher costs in diamonds, platinum, nickel and iron ore.
The miner announced a $1.6 billion impairment charge on its De Beers diamond business owing to faltering demand, and another impairment of $500 million at its Barro Alto nickel mine, which has been affected by the slowdown in demand from the electric vehicle sector.
“We are now in a process of systematically going through all of our assets in a review just to assess their role in the portfolio, their success in the portfolio, and absolutely nothing is off the table in respect of that review,” CEO Duncan Wanblad said.
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The review is expected to take around one year, he told reporters.
The London-listed miner’s 2023 profit attributable to shareholders fell to $283 million from $4.5 billion a year earlier.
Anglo declared a full-year shareholder payout of $0.96 per share, totalling $500 million, down from $1.98.
Net debt swelled to $10.6 billion in 2023, from $6.9 billion the prior period, slightly lower than analysts’ consensus at $10.93 billion.
The global miner, which also produces copper, joined most of its rivals in reporting lower full-year earnings and shareholder dividends. But cuts at some of its businesses were more extreme.
Both its South African unit Kumba Iron Ore and Anglo American Platinum earlier this week announced plans to cut more than 4 000 jobs and review agreements with a combined 780 contractors.
Anglo had already announced $1.8 billion of spending cuts by 2026 after earlier logging a $1.7 billion writedown on its project to produce fertiliser nutrients in Britain.
