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Anglo American announces Australia coal exit

Mining giant Anglo American has announced it will sell off it’s Queensland coal mines, including three Moranbah operations.

The company said the Moranbah North and Grosvenor Mines were up for sale, as well as the Moranbah South development project.

They said the sales are part of “wide-ranging measures that will sustainably improve cash flows and materially reduce net debt”.

“Anglo American will focus on competitive, long life assets with considerable organic growth opportunities that mine consumer-driven materials that are expected to benefit from long term growth trends as the global economy evolves and developing economies mature,” a statement from the company said.

Anglo American Coal CEO Seamus French said Anglo American’s coal assets were highly attractive and believed that they would continue to prosper under new ownership that is well positioned to allocate capital to continue to create value.

“In Australia and Canada we have some of the best metallurgical coal assets and operating teams in the world and the decision to divest over time in no way reflects the quality of the portfolio or the high performing teams who have continuously delivered and performed to world-class standards,” Mr French said.

“We have already announced the intention to sell a number of the Australian assets including Callide, Dartbrook, Dawson, and Foxleigh – some of which already have conditional sales agreed.

“The remaining assets are now being evaluated for buyer interest. We will follow the usual sale process and it is our aim to sell the assets as going concerns to have minimal impact on our workforce.”

The Moranbah North, Grosvenor and Moranbah South assets in the Bowen Basin at Moranbah will be sold as a package as one of the most significant, high quality metallurgical coal businesses in the world with a combined resource base of over half a billion tonnes as at 2014.

The sale process is underway and is expected to take several months and early engagement with potential buyers has commenced.

Mr French said Anglo American’s New South Wales assets would be included in the divestment programme. Alongside the conditional sale of Dartbrook to Australia Pacific Coal announced in December , Drayton and Drayton South will be assessed for sale.

“The devastating PAC decision in late 2015 to recommend Drayton South not be approved means that continuity of operations between Drayton and Drayton South is not possible and that mining operations will cease at Drayton during 2016,” Mr French said.

In December, Anglo announced a “radical portfolio restructuring” which included plans to slash 85,000 jobs globally.

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