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BHP bombshell puts South African mining in a hole
BHP has put South Africa and its mining sector on the spot. The $140 billion Australian group’s ambitious swoop on rival Anglo American would see one of the Rainbow Nation’s most familiar companies largely withdraw from the country more than a hundred years after it was founded. The question is whether the government in Pretoria can stop the $39 billion transaction – and whether it should. South African officials have so far given BHP’s proposal a mixed reception. Gwede Mantashe, the country’s mining minister, told Bloomberg he “wouldn’t support” the deal. But President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ... (full story)