How Anglo Quietly Built a Commodity Trader in Glencore's Shadow

  • Miner now trades more metals and coal than it produces
  • Company may consider taking financial bets on metals

Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

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Anglo American Plc has quietly become a commodities trader.

In just five years, the century-old miner assembled marketing operations that now sell more metals than the company produces. Yet the trading business gets barely a mention at presentations by Anglo executives or in analyst reports, taking a back seat to mines that produce everything from copper and platinum to diamonds.