Not quite a mine of value

When the rules of the game change, traditional winners often lose out. That is what happened to Anglo American, which used to dominate the South African mining sector, along with much of the then isolated country’s economy. The company has long been playing catch-up. The lag makes it a plausible takeover target, despite a market capi-talisation of £37bn. And in-deed, there were rumours last week of a break-up bid from Rio Tinto, CVRD and Xstrata. An Anglo bid can be considered the next natural ...