{"id":1158695,"date":"2020-01-08T06:11:02","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T12:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1010705"},"modified":"2020-01-08T06:11:02","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T12:11:02","slug":"anglo-american-goes-after-potash-mine-developer-sirius-minerals-with-507m-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1158695","title":{"rendered":"Anglo American goes after potash mine developer Sirius Minerals with $507m offer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Anglo American (LON:AAL) may be the company that throws a much-needed lifeline to Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX), the British company struggling to build a huge fertilizer mine beneath a national park, thanks to a <a href=\"http:\/\/otp.investis.com\/clients\/uk\/sirius_minerals\/rns\/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=485&amp;newsid=1357363\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">last-minute takeover bid<\/a> that values the mine developer at almost \u00a3386 million (about $507m).\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The diversified miner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.angloamerican.com\/~\/media\/Files\/A\/Anglo-American-Group\/PLC\/investors\/offer\/anglo-american-response-to-statement-from-sirius-minerals-plc.pdf\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">confirmed on Wednesday<\/a> that it was in advanced talks with Sirius over cash offer\u00a0of 5.5p a share, equivalent to one-third more than the targeted company\u2019s market value at close on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Sirius, which is midway through\u00a0building its Woodsmith fertilizer mine in the North Yorks Moors national park, has seen its share price collapse <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/sirius-minerals-shares-crash-after-scrapping-500m-fundraising-plan\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">after warning last September<\/a> that multibillion dollar\u00a0funding for the next stage had fallen through. It warned at the time it only had enough cash to last\u00a0another six months.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The company has already raised \u00a3920 million ($1.2bn) to<br \/>\ndevelop Woodsmith and received the backing of thousands of local retail<br \/>\ninvestors, but needs a further $3.8bn to turn it into the world\u2019s biggest<br \/>\nproducer of polyhalite, a form of potash used in plant fertilizers.<\/p>\n<p>As a last resource, Sirius launched in November a rescue plan involving the participation of a potential strategic investor and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/sirius-minerals-unveils-rescue-plan-for-uks-biggest-fertilizer-mine\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">revised two-stage development plan<\/a> for the mine.<\/p>\n<p>Anglo seems to be just what Sirius has been waiting for as<br \/>\nit said it was prepared to recommend the offer provided it can secure<br \/>\nsatisfactory assurances around jobs and other \u201cstakeholder interests\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>If the deal goes ahead, if could save more than 1,000 jobs<br \/>\nin one of England\u2019s underprivileged areas, which goes hand in hand with Prime<br \/>\nMinister Boris Johnson\u2019s pledge to revive poorer regions of the UK.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Long time coming<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Anglo American hinted the unexpected bid had been in the<br \/>\nworks for months, saying it identified the project as being of potential<br \/>\ninterest \u201csome time ago\u201d due to its quality in terms of scale, resources and<br \/>\ncosts.<\/p>\n<p>If successful, the takeover would mark a comeback to the fertilizer<br \/>\nsector for Anglo, which owned some phosphate assets in the past but in recent<br \/>\nyears has focused on \u201cfour pillars\u201d \u2014copper, iron ore, diamonds and platinum.<\/p>\n<p>Construction of Woodsmith, the largest mine to be built in<br \/>\nthe UK for a generation, involves sinking two 1.5km shafts and is expected to<br \/>\ncreate about 1,800 jobs during construction, as well as 1,000 permanent<br \/>\npositions once it opens.<\/p>\n<p>The ore will be extracted through the shafts and transported to Teesside on the world\u2019s longest underground conveyor belt, via a 37km-underground tunnel. It will then be granulated at a materials handling facility, with the majority being exported to overseas markets.<\/p>\n<p><em>More to come&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Move could rescue plans to dig the UK&#8217;s largest mine in a generation and would bring Anglo back to the fertilizers market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2849,949,369,2640],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158695"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1158695"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1158805,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158695\/revisions\/1158805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1158695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1158695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1158695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}