The last time BHP Group took a swing at another major miner, it was Rio Tinto back in 2007. That could have been a blockbuster $150-billion takeover, but with metals prices crashing as the financial crisis took hold and with China signaling its discontent, the plan crumbled. Having confirmed its takeover approach for rival Anglo American on Thursday, executives at the world’s biggest digger will be hoping for a better outcome this time — even with one of the most complex deals the industry has seen in years.

Copper made a fresh push toward five digits as BHP Group’s blockbuster offer to buy Anglo American lent support to bulls who say the metal is headed for long-term shortages and high prices. The world’s biggest miner has proposed a $39-billion takeover of Anglo, chiefly targeting its smaller rival’s South American copper mines. The size and timing of the bid — with copper up 16% this year — is a stark sign of how resources giants are trying to muscle in on a commodity that’s crucial to green industries.

Every Friday, SAfm’s radio anchor Sakina Kamwendo speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News & Mining Weekly. Reported here is this Friday’s At the Coalface transcript: Kamwendo: Martin, for the first time in 21 years, a copper concentrate has been exported from South Africa's copper rich Northern Cape.

The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) has voiced serious concerns following an incident at Glencore’s copper smelter in Mount Isa, which left two workers in critical condition. “Tough questions need to be asked about how an incident like this has occurred,” stated AWU Queensland Secretary Stacey Schinnerl, expressing deep concern over the incident.

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer unpacks Copper 360’s shares rising more than 26% after it shipped concentrates from the Northern Cape; Orion Minerals shares rocketing to 58% on the Australian Stock Exchange; and the new digital system that can be used to buy and sell green hydrogen.  

On Thursday, BHP Group bid $38.8-billion for smaller rival Anglo American, offering a deal to forge the world's biggest copper miner. Here is a list of some previous big-ticket deals in the mining sector.

Diversified miner Anglo American has firmly rebuffed a $38.8-billion proposal from mining heavyweight BHP, with chairperson Stuart Chambers dismissing the nonbinding offer as “highly unattractive”. In a statement released on Friday, Chambers labelled the BHP proposal as opportunistic and lacking in appreciation for Anglo’s prospects.

Against the arid, red dirt of the Australian Outback, the Mount Holland lithium mine emerges to approaching visitors as a colossal grey-tinged crater, with trucks the size of houses edging along its steep inclines. An expanding site at the heart of the world’s top lithium-producing region, the A$2.6-billion operation is emblematic of the plentiful additional supply of the battery material currently weighing on global prices, much of it from this neighborhood. Despite bullish long term forecasts, the metal has been languishing near two-year lows as demand fails to keep pace.

China's Tianqi Lithium said on Thursday it has formally requested that a proposed joint venture between lithium company SQM, in which it is a major shareholder, and state-run copper miner Codelco be put to a shareholder's vote. The Santiago-based SQM, the world's no. 2 lithium producer, is in talks with Codelco over the deal, which was mandated by Chile's government to boost the state role in the lithium industry.

Anglo American's management does not consider a proposed $39-billion takeover offer from BHP Group as attractive, two sources told Reuters, as some investors and analysts dismissed it as opportunistic. BHP on Thursday offered Anglo's shareholders 25.08 pounds ($31.39) per share, or $38.8-billion, a premium of 31% to the market close on Wednesday. It would take over Anglo after a spin-off of two assets.