Talk:Anglo American plc

Name

Shouldn't it be Anglo American plc ?

Yes, but there is a large amount of resistance to giving company articles their formal names. See Wikipedia:Naming conventions#Companies and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (companies) for policy and guidelines. I would prefer the name under which the company is registered to be used, but the preference seems to be to use the trading name, as with Abbey (bank). Noisy | Talk 11:39, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Tarmac

Does the Tarmac company deserve it's own page, or should links come here - or to Tarmac ?

-- Beardo 01:36, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Links should be to Tarmac plc, which obviously doesn't exist yet. Noisy | Talk 11:39, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

An article on Tarmac plc does now exist Dormskirk 14:24, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Additions from Anglo American

Hi, my name is Robyn and I work in the Communications team at Anglo American. I’m new to Wikipedia, but understand and respect the rules of maintaining NPOV and making sure that items posted are verifiable and not original research. Additionally, I recognize that since I work for Anglo American I have a clear conflict of interest and will utilize the talk pages to discuss comments regarding the page.
My aim for participating is not to transform the article into a glowing review, but to transparently assist with any information requests or address factual clarifications that might help continue to evolve the article so that it provides a thorough overview of the company that reflects general consensus.
With that in mind, I have followed the gradual evolution of this page and noticed a few points that I wanted to suggest that might help as the page continues to develop out of its Stub-Class quality rating:

• Consider creating a “Company Milestones” or “Important Dates” subsection under the History section to flesh out key developments:
  • Ernest Oppenheimer founded the Anglo American Corporation (AAC), a gold mining company, in 1917 with £1million, raised from U.K. and U.S. sources, and ultimately derived the name of the company (http://www.forbes.com/2006/08/21/anglo-american-update-cx_cn_0821miner.html)
    
  • In 1926, the AAC became the majority stakeholder in the De Beers company, of which Sir Oppenheimer became chairman in 1929 (http://www.forbes.com/2006/08/21/anglo-american-update-cx_cn_0821miner.html). In 1928, the AAC began mining what is now known as the Zambian copper.
    
  • In 1945, the AAC moved into the coal industry by acquiring Coal Estates. Twelve years later, in 1957, Sir Ernest died in Johannesburg and was succeeded by his son, Harry Oppenheimer, who also became chairman of De Beers.
    
  • In the late 1940s and 1950’s the AAC focused on the development of the Free State goldfields (seven major mines simultaneously) and the Vaal Reefs mine. The success of the mines catapulted the company into the world’s largest gold-mining group (http://www.answers.com/topic/anglo-america).
    
  • In 1961, the AAC expanded outside of southern Africa for the first time and became a major investor in the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Company in Canada.
  • In 1967, the company moved into the steel industry by acquiring Scaw Metals. From 1967 to 1975, the company continued to grow and established a number of ventures, including the Mondi Group(timber, pulp and paper), Amgold (later AngloGold Ashanti) and then Amcoal (through the consolidation of several of its mining operations in South Africa and later known as Anglo Coal).
  • In 1982, Harry Oppenheimer retired as chairman of the AAC and was succeeded by Gavin Relly. Two years later, Oppenheimer retired from De Beers and passed the chairmanship to Julian Ogilvie Thompson, who in 1990 also became chairman and chief executive of the AAC.
    
  • Anglo American merged with Minorco on May 24, 1999 to form Anglo American plc with its primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Its gold mining operations were spun off into the AngloGold corporation, which later merged with the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation to form AngloGold Ashanti. Anglo American has since reduced its stake in AngloGold Ashanti to 16.6 percent and plans to exit the company altogether (http://www.angloamerican.co.uk/aa/investors/meetings/agm2008/ceo2008/).
  • In 2000, Julian Ogilvie Thompson retired as chief executive of Anglo American and was succeeded by Tony Trahar. Ogilvie Thompson also retired as chairman in 2002 and was replaced by Sir Mark Moody-Stuart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Moody-Stuart.
  • In 2000, Anglo American acquired Tarmac, a supplier of building materials (http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=382632&in_page_id=2&in_a_source=).
    
  • In 2000, Anglo American acquired Shell Petroleum Company’s Australian coal assets(http://www.atimes.com/bizasia/BF02Aa01.html).
    
  • In 2001, De Beers was privatized after being a listed company for more than 70 years (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407EED91530F935A25751C0A9679C8B63).
    
  • In 2002, South Africa’s Mining Charter was approved (http://www.southafrica.info/business/trends/empowerment/charters.htm) and Anglo American and other mining companies with operations in the country were mandated to transfer a percentage of its South African production to historically disadvantaged South Africans (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2316123.stm). Anglo American has since carried out black economic empowerment transactions across all businesses with operations in South Africa totaling R26 billion worth of transactions (http://www.miningweekly.com/article/employment-equity-next-big-transformation-challenge-for-anglo-american-south-africa-baum-2008-07-08).
    
  • In 2002, Anglo Base Metals acquired the Disputada copper operations in Chile from Exxon Mobil Corporation (http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2002/11/11/daily35.html).
    
  • In 2002, Anglo American opened a representative office in Beijing, China (http://www.bjreview.com.cn/world/txt/2007-04/23/content_62271_2.htm)
    
  • In 2003, Anglo American acquired a major stake in iron ore producer Kumba Resources (http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=563&fArticleId=303610).
    
  • In 2007, Cynthia Carroll became the first non-South African and first female chief executive of Anglo American and succeeded chief executive Tony Trahar (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2949496/Anglo-appoints-first-female-head.html).
    
  • During the next two years Anglo American opened a representative office in New Delhi, India (http://www.chinamining.org/News/2008-11-07/1226027270d18913.html), acquired control of the Michiquillay copper project in northern Peru and the MMX Minas-Rio and Amapa iron ore projects in Brazil (http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/17/mmx-anglo-american-markets-equity-cx_vr_0117markets23.html), and later acquired stakes in the Pebble copper project in Alaska (http://www.forbes.com/leadership/forbes/2008/0616/100.html) and Foxleigh coal mine in Australia.

• Consider adding more information to the operations section (section 2), to include a broader scope of Anglo American’s business units and activities:
  • The Company focuses on natural resources. Anglo American has five main business units: base metals, coal, diamonds, iron ore (or ferrous metals) and platinum. Its operating footprint includes Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America (http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile?rpc=66&symbol=AAUK.O). The company has 190,000 employees that make up its managed operations and are located in 45 countries (http://www.angloamerican.co.uk/aa/about/ataglance).
    
  • Wholly-owned subsidiaries include Anglo Base Metals, Anglo Ferrous Metals and Industries, Anglo Coal and Anglo Industrial Minerals (http://www.angloamerican.co.uk/aa/siteware/docs/FactBook_0708_contents_PLC.pdf).
    
  • It also holds 45% of the diamond mining company De Beers, 76.5% of Anglo Platinum, and 63.4% of Kumba Iron Ore (http://www.angloamerican.co.uk/aa/siteware/docs/FactBook_0708_contents_PLC.pdf). The Mondi Group was spun out in 2007.
    
  • Exploration: In 2007, Anglo American spent $283 million on exploring 25 countries for copper, nickel, niobium phosphates and zinc. The two main types of exploration for the company are Greenfield and Brownfield with nearly 70% devoted to Greenfield projects (http://www.angloamerican.co.uk/aa/business/whatwedo/exploration).
    
  • Technology and innovation: Anglo American, along with De Beers, backed the manufacturing of a Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) to help improve the sensitivity of exploration surveys (http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/179269460.html).
    
  • Anglo American established Boart Products South Africa Limited in 1936 (later named Boart International) to turn the company’s stockpile of boart, or low-grade natural diamonds, into drilling products (http://www.adventinternational.nl/News/Article.aspx?PageID=7.1&NewsID=107). This initiative resulted in the development of the first mechanically set diamond drill bit and later led to additional research into cutting and abrasive tools (http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Boart-Longyear-Company-Company-History.html).
    

• Consider creating a separate “See Also” section of the article. This seems to be a common category for other company pages and would provide links to other relevant Wikipedia pages mentioned on this page or are appropriate to this article’s topic, such as:
  • Mining Companies {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_companies}
  • Earthwatch
  • Mineral Policy Institute
  • Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
  • International Council on Mining and Metals
  • United Nations Global Compact

• Consider adding an external link to the London Stock Exchange under Section 5 (External Links); this is where Anglo American is primarily listed and seems to be a common addition for publically traded companies:
  • Anglo American stock prices on the London Stock Exchange (http://www.londonstockexchange.com/en-gb/pricesnews/prices/system/detailedprices.htm?ti=AAL)
    

RDAngloAmerican (talk) 12:54, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Adding information to the Anglo American plc page

My name is Robyn and I work on the Communications team at Anglo American. Two months ago I posted a comment regarding some points that might help as the page continues to develop out of its Stub-Class quality rating. Since we haven’t heard anything back from the community I’m planning on making the previously suggested updates in the next few days. I recognize that because I work for Anglo American I have a clear conflict of interest, but since the suggested updates reflect similar items posted in articles of other FTSE 100 companies, we believe these are appropriate additions to the article. I understand that this might be changed by various editors and that is why I have attempted to include language that maintains NPOV and is verifiable online. My aim for these updates is not to make this article a glowing review of the company, but to make sure it includes some basic background information that reflects general consensus. RDAngloAmerican (talk) 08:25, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Additions from Anglo American

Hi, my name is Robyn and I work in the Communications group at Anglo American. I recently noticed some small errors in the article that require edits and included those below for consideration. Additionally, I wanted to suggest some verifiable updates to the article for consideration to help present NPOV coverage of all aspects of the criticism section. I understand my clear conflict of interest by working with Anglo American, but thought these items were beneficial to the article and consistent with other mining companies of Anglo American’s size.

• The introductory/summary section mislabels Anglo American as “a world-wide group of companies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation)” when it is really a “multi-national mining company.” Small edit suggestions here, but I thought it would be appropriate to present to the community.

• Consider additions to the criticism section to help present NPOV coverage of all aspects of the items discussed:
  • Original first paragraph: “In August 2007 British charity War on Want (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Want) published a report accusing Anglo American of profiting from the abuse of people in the developing countries in which the company operates. According to the charity, "in the Philippines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines) and South Africa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa), local communities threatened with Anglo American mines have faced severe repression in their fight to stay on their land, while in Ghana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana) and Mali (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali), local communities see little of the huge profits being made by AngloGold Ashanti (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AngloGold_Ashanti) but suffer from fear and intimidation and from the damaging impact of its mines on their environment, health and livelihoods".
  • Added on the end of this paragraph: Anglo American subsequently published a report (http://www.angloamerican.co.uk/aa/media/releases/2007pr/2007-08-09/2007-08-09.pdf) responding to War on Want and separately disclosed its safety performance in its most recent annual earnings report (http://www.angloamerican.co.uk/aa/investors/reports/2007rep/ir2007/ir2007.pdf), along with immediate measures to address safety concerns (http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/11/biz-07women_Cynthia-Carroll_4PVY.html).
  • Original second paragraph: “Anglo American was also accused in 2007 of damageable environmental practices: in order to complete its planned Alaskan Pebble Mine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_Mine) in collaboration with Northern Dynasty Minerals, the global mining giant may build a massive dam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dam) at the headwaters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headwaters) of the world's largest sockeye salmon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockeye_salmon) fishery, which it would risk obliterating.[4] Opponents are also pointing to the use of cyanide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanide), heavy metals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metals), and acid mine drainage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_mine_drainage) which can all have potentially devastating effects on the pristine environment of the Bristol Bay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Bay) area.”
  • Added on the end of the second paragraph: Opponents of the Pebble Mine created Ballot Measure 4 to impose additional water quality standards on new large-scale mines in the state. However, in August 2007, Alaskans voted against the initiative (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26445447/). The Pebble Limited Partnership has not yet put forward a project proposal and is working to prepare a Prefeasibility Study for the project in the second half of 2009 (http://www.im-mining.com/2008/09/04/alaska-voters-validate-states-regulatory-framework-for-mining/). The mine proposal must still undergo environmental studies and the permitting process, including being subject to state and federal water protections (http://www.alternet.org/water/96843/alaska_chooses_largest_gold_mine_over_clean_water/)

• Consider also adding in a new section devoted to “Sustainable Development” activities. This is typical of many mining company Wikipedia articles and is becoming an area of general interest with the rise of media coverage specific to sustainability practices. Some notable items may include:
  • Anglo American is a member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (http://www.wbcsd.org/templates/TemplateWBCSD4/layout.asp?type=p&MenuId=MzM5&doOpen=1&ClickMenu=LeftMenu) and in August 2008, the company was named as a winner of the UK Sustainability Reporting Awards (http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/news/2224901/acca-sustainability-awards). Additionally, Anglo American committed to support the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extractive_Industries_Transparency_Initiative), which strengthens governance by improving transparency and accountability in the extractives sector (http://eitransparency.org/supporters/companies).
  • A socio economic toolkit originally developed by Anglo American to manage the social aspects of its operational impacts, was released into the public domain for non-profits and other companies to use (http://www.corporate-eye.com/2008/07/front-seat-sustainability/). The program was commended by the World Business Awards program of the United Nations Development Programme (http://content.undp.org/go/newsroom/2006/may/world-business-awards-20060502.en;jsessionid=axbWzt...?categoryID=349437&lang=en).
  • With a significant number of operations and employees in South Africa, Anglo American faces the HIV/AIDS challenge on a large scale (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/71/courage.html). In response, it runs a workplace program for HIV/AIDS testing and counseling (http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/dec2005/nf2005122_8346_db008.htm). In 2002, it started to provide antiretroviral drugs for employees with AIDS (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05E7D8113BF934A3575BC0A9649C8B63).

RDAngloAmerican (talk) 10:33, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Additions from Anglo American

Hi, Robyn again from the Communications group at Anglo American. I understand and respect the rules of maintaining NPOV and making sure that items posted are verifiable and not original research. Additionally, I recognize that since I work for Anglo American I have a clear conflict of interest and will utilize the talk pages to discuss comments regarding the page. I recently noticed some small errors in the article that require edits and included those below for consideration.

• Key people: Sir Mark Moody-Stuart has now retired as chairman of the board and his successor is Sir John Parker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_John_Parker)
• Anglo American unsponsored ADRs now trade on the OTCBB Pink Sheets under the ticker AAUKY. NYSE AAUK should be amended to Pink Sheets (OTC) USD AAUKY (http://www.pinksheets.com/pink/quote/quote.jsp?symbol=AAUKY)

RDAngloAmerican (talk) 08:46, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Adding information to the Anglo American plc page

My name is Robyn and I work on the Communications team at Anglo American. Recently I posted some comments regarding some points that might help as the page continues to develop out of its Stub-Class quality rating. Since we haven’t heard anything back from the community I’m planning on making the previously suggested updates in the next few days. I recognize that because I work for Anglo American I have a clear conflict of interest, but since the suggested updates reflect similar items posted in articles of other FTSE 100 companies, we believe these are appropriate additions to the article. I understand that this might be changed by various editors and that is why I have attempted to include language that maintains NPOV and is verifiable online. My aim for these updates is not to make this article a glowing review of the company, but to make sure it includes some basic background information that reflects general consensus. RDAngloAmerican (talk) 12:57, 21 August 2009 (UTC)