Two years later, Oppenheimer retired from De Beers and passed the chairmanship to Julian Ogilvie Thompson,[13] who in 1990 also became chairman and chief executive of the AAC.

In the same year, Anglo American acquired Tarmac, a supplier of building materials,[17] and Shell Petroleum Company's Australian coal assets.

[21] From 2002 to July 2008 Anglo American carried out black community economic empowerment transactions (across all businesses with operations in South Africa) totalling R26 billion.

[22] Also, in 2002, Anglo Base Metals acquired the Disputada copper operations in Chile from ExxonMobil[23] and opened a representative office in Beijing, China.

[30] Anglo American was also accused in 2007 of damaging environmental practices: in order to complete its planned Alaskan Pebble Mine in collaboration with Northern Dynasty Minerals, the company considered building a massive dam at the headwaters of the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery, which it would risk obliterating.

[31] Opponents also pointed to the use of cyanide, heavy metals, and acid mine drainage which can all have potentially devastating effects on the environment of the Bristol Bay area.

[38] In November 2012, Anglo American completed the sale of steel maker Scaw South Africa and its connected companies for a total of R3.4 billion in cash.

[47] In April 2017, the company sold its Eskom-linked thermal coal operations in South Africa for $166 million, marking an important step in the mining giant's strategic overhaul to sharpen its focus on three commodities.

[48] In October 2019, Anglo American announced a partnership with French energy company Engie[49] and engineering firm First Mode to develop the world's largest hydrogen-powered mine haul truck.

[50] In January 2020, Anglo American made a 5.5p per share offer to buy a polyhalite fertiliser project (in North Yorkshire, England) from Sirius Minerals for £400m.

[53] In April 2021, Anglo American announced the demerger of Thungela Resources, which will own a series of significant South African thermal coal assets,[54][55] in order to eliminate the risk of clean-up liabilities.

[58] President of the Republic of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa was present at the launch and stated, "Developing the hydrogen economy is a strategic priority for our country.

[65] In 2008, Anglo American (excluding De Beers) spent $212 million on exploring 21 countries for resources including copper, nickel, niobium phosphates and zinc.

[67] Anglo American, along with De Beers, backed the manufacturing of a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) to help improve the sensitivity of exploration surveys.

[69] 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.

[70] In December 2010, following delays and high costs, Anglo American gained a key licence from the Brazilian government that would allow work to start on the Minas-Rio iron ore project.

[73] As of October 2014, Minas-Rio is operational and shipping ore.[42] In July 2018, Anglo American announced that it would spend $5.3 billion on developing the Quellaveco copper mine in Peru, which the company acquired in 1992, with the Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi funding 40% of the total cost.