That said, it’s not immediately obvious who’s next on the block. Henry could wait the mandatory six months and have another pop at Anglo, but he’d still have to work out how to separate the UK-listed miner’s juicy copper mines from the other bits he doesn’t want. Anglo boss Duncan Wanblad, meanwhile, is unlikely to be an M&A aggressor — his successful defence against BHP requires him to spend the next year or so hiving off problem areas like diamonds. Rio Tinto, the other big global mining beast, was assumed to be waiting to pounce on other targets while BHP was distracted swallowing Anglo — which it now isn’t.
The picture doesn’t necessarily get any clearer in the next echelon down. Major copper-focused players include $26 billion Antofagasta, whose shares have doubled in the last two years, and $85 billion Southern Copper. These boast annual production of over 600,000 tonnes and 900,000 tonnes respectively. But…
