The future of mining is a marriage of toxic legacies: The Anglo American-Teck merger

One story dominated the Joburg Mining Indaba earlier this month: the proposed merger between Anglo American and Canada’s Teck Resources, a deal that would create one of the world’s largest diversified mining groups.

The merger, covering operations in more than 20 countries, has ignited global debate over whether the industry’s pursuit of “critical minerals” for the green transition can be done while upholding principles of justice, sustainability, and human rights.

For over a century, Anglo American has been both an engine of South Africa’s industrial growth and the engineers of enduring inequality. Its ventures abroad, now including a CAD $4.5 billion expansion in Canada – sees the corporation freeing itself from its roots in South Africa, while leaving behind environmental and social debts.

The government’s new Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy aims to ensure reciprocity and local benefit, but Anglo’s divestment from platinum, coal and manganese assets raises doubts. “Before expanding abroad,” said one South African activist, “Anglo must first clean up its house.”

Promises of responsibility, patterns of harm

Anglo American CEO Duncan Wanblad used his keynote address, “Anglo American’s Perspective on South Africa as a Mining Jurisdiction,” to emphasise responsible growth and global competitiveness. But labour and communiry representatives at the indaba challenged that message, pointing to ongoing harm across Anglo’s global footprint.

Teck has no better record, from its copper operations in Chile that have caused water shortages and illness, to British Columbia’s Elk Valley, where Teck has been accused of polluting rivers with selenium. Communities argue that the green transition risks repeating old patterns of extraction without accountability.

“The world’s energy future cannot justify today’s exploitation,” warned a delegate from the Tlou Mogale Foundation, which works with mining-affected communities in South Africa.

Concerns across continents

In Canada, the Osoyoos Indian Band has formally challenged aspects of the merger, while the Competition Bureau of Canada investigates its market and environmental implications. Ecojustice and the Sierra Club Foundation have called for transparency and indigenous consultation before any approval.

Meanwhile, in Australia’s Bowen Basin, where it operates five metallurgical-coal mines, Anglo continues to face scrutiny after a 2020 explosion and a 2024 underground fire, which highlighted safety and methane emission risks.

Merger a test of integrity

Civil society groups across London, Lima, Vancouver and Johannesburg are coordinating campaigns to hold Anglo American and Teck accountable for their environmental legacies. The merger, they say, is a chance for the companies to prove they can meet modern expectations of justice, transparency and Indigenous inclusion.

The World Economic Forum’s Enabling Indigenous Trade report and the UNDP’s Managing Mining for Sustainable Development both underline that meaningful community participation is essential to sustainable mining. Whether Anglo and Teck will embed those principles remains to be seen.

As Wanblad concluded his Johannesburg address, messages echoed from Vancouver to Santiago: mining communities are not against progress – they are against exploitation.

“The green transition cannot be built on the same old extractive order,” said a civil society representative. “Growth without integrity is no longer sustainable.”

Mine tailings near Snake Park in Soweto. Photo by Simon Ramapuputla

A Legacy Revisited

Founded in Johannesburg in 1917, Anglo American helped shape South Africa’s economy and its – inequalities. More than a century later, as it merges with Teck to form a global powerhouse, it faces a moment of reckoning: can a company rooted in colonial extraction evolve into a force for fairness, accountability, and climate justice?

From the platinum belt to the Canadian Rockies, the world is waiting for the answer.

Tlou Mogale Foundation is a civil society organisation working with mining affected communities and youth development in South Africa