Anglo American PLC on Thursday said half-year profit more than halved, due largely to another impairment charge on Woodsmith polyhalite project in Yorkshire, England and costs related to its new strategic plan.

The London-based miner said pretax profit plunged 63% to $1.12 billion for the first six months of 2024 from $3.03 billion a year before, as revenue fell 7.7% to $14.46 billion from $15.67 billion.

Anglo American said special items and remeasurements amounted to $2.0 billion for the first six months, compared to $400 million a year previously. Special items this year include impairments of $1.6 billion on Woodsmith and restructuring costs linked to the strategic change of $300 million. Anglo said the impairment was due to its decision to slowdown the project’s development.

‘Our decision to temporarily slowdown the Woodsmith crop nutrients project and thereby push out its production timing has resulted in a $1.6 billion impairment of the project,’ Anglo said.

Back in 2022, Anglo American already had taken an impairment charge related to the Woodsmith project of $1.7 billion.

In May this year, Anglo American said it intended to ‘demerge’ Anglo American Platinum Ltd and ‘divest’ or ‘demerge’ De Beers as part of its new strategy. It also wanted to divest its steelmaking coal business.

The diversified miner wants to concentrate on copper and iron ore as part of its new strategy, which was unveiled after rival BHP Group Ltd launched a bid to take over Anglo American. BHP later abandoned its bid.

Anglo American declared an interim dividend of 42 US cents, down 24% from 55 cents.

Loss per share was 0.55 cents, swung from earnings per share of 1.38 cents, while headline EPS dwindled 46% to 0.73 cents from 1.35 cents.

Chief Executive Officer Duncan Wanblad said he was ‘very encouraged’ by a ‘strong’ operational performance that delivered steady volumes and a 4% improvement in unit costs, while still facing weak cyclical markets for platinum group metals and diamonds.

Anglo American expects to ‘substantially’ reduce its overhead and other non-operational costs in phases, but weighted towards the end of the process to minimise business risk.

Shares in Anglo American fell 1.5% at 2,189.00 pence on Thursday morning in London, while Johannesburg shares eased 0.6% to R 523.29.

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