South32 was born of the demerger of noncore assets from BHP in 2015. South32’s major operations include alumina businesses in Australia and Brazil, aluminium in Brazil, South Africa, and Mozambique, manganese businesses in Australia and South Africa, and New South Wales metallurgical coal. It also owns the Cannington silver/lead/zinc mine in northwest Queensland and the Cerro Matoso nickel mine in Colombia. Cannington silver mine and manganese operations deliver high returns, but have relatively short reserve life. The company acquired Arizona Mining, which brings with it the high-grade and likely low-cost Taylor deposit in the U.S., and also entered the copper business in 2022 via the purchase of a 45% stake in the Sierra Gorda mine in Chile.
