Miner South32 looks to join drive to build electric cars

MINING group South32 has said it wants to join the race to supply minerals to the electric car industry, after reporting a swing to profit and a healthy full-year dividend.

The company, which was spun out of BHP Billiton in 2015, is the latest miner to spy an opportunity in digging up exotic commodities to feed the market for electric vehicle batteries.

“We are looking to add more base metals exposure to the group. We do see battery technology having an impact over time,” said Graham Kerr, chief executive.

With the rapid rise in electric vehicles, miners are scrambling to supply the copper, nickel and cobalt that will be needed to build cars and batteries in the future.

South32 currently mines coal, manganese ore, bauxite, nickel, silver and lead across Australia, South Africa and South America. In the year to June 30, it reported a 15pc jump in revenue to $6.1bn (£4.76bn), largely on the back of stronger commodity prices. It swung to a pre-tax profit of $1.6bn compared to a loss of $1.5bn last year.

South32 will pay a full-year dividend of 10 US cents a share, versus 1 cent a year ago. It will also increase its share buy-back programme from $500m to $750m.

Mr Kerr downplayed rumours that South32 might like to buy both of Rio Tinto’s remaining Australian coal mines, one of which produces thermal coal for power stations.

“We’ve been quite open that energy coal is probably not something we want to grow in,” he said. He acknowledged the other mine – which produces coal for steelmaking – might be of interest. If that’s in the marketplace, we’d certainly have a look at it because we like metallurgical coal.”