Anglo American is under new management - following Cynthia Carroll's appointment as CEO to replace Tony Trahar - as will BHP Billiton when CEO Chip Goodyear steps down later this year.

Groups the size of Anglo, with a market cap of R571bn at end-April, are like supertankers in that there are long delays between setting a change of course and seeing the result - but already it's clear Carroll is going to have a big impact.

In fact, within less than a month of taking over she announced a major deal in iron ore where Anglo had battled to make headway for more than five years since identifying it as a core business sector it wished to expand into.

Anglo missed out on the acquisitions of North and Hope Downs in Australia and won 65% control of Kumba Iron Ore (Kumba) only after putting a complex deal in place to separate it from the rest of Kumba's base metal and coal assets.

These are now listed through BEE-controlled Exxaro Resources, which is becoming SA's most important coal producing group.

Exxaro will also shortly be under new management. It is currently run by Con Fauconnier, formerly the CEO of Kumba Resources, but by mid-year he will hand over to CEO-designate Sipho Nkosi, who was the CEO of Eyesizwe Mining, which - following the BEE deal - is now the effective controlling shareholder in Exxaro.

Anglo is spending US$1,15bn to buy a 49% stake in the MMX Minas-Rio JV, which is developing an integrated iron ore project consisting of a number of iron ore deposits in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais and an iron ore terminal capable of handling Capesize vessels (100 000 t plus) to be built in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

The iron ore will be transported from the mines to the terminal in slurry form via one or more slurry pipelines. It will be sold in pellet form, which is different to the lumpy and fine ores exported by Kumba from Saldanha Bay. The pelletised iron ore will also be marketed to different customers.

Construction of the first phase is expected to cost $2,35bn and start in the fourth quarter of 2009. That will take production to 26,5 Mt/year; a further expansion is planned to double this capacity.

"This project, together with the planned Kumba expansions, will add significantly to Anglo American's iron ore production, resulting in consolidated iron ore production in excess of 100 Mt/year in the next five years," says Carroll.

Changes at the top of an organisation frequently result in casualties lower down; in the case of Anglo, the first one was Simon Thompson, executive director in charge of base metals, who left in April "to pursue other opportunities". He was one of the top internal CEO contenders.

Carroll also seems to have had an immediate impact on Anglo's relationship with the SA government, one which has frequently been stormy, particularly in the case of Anglo Platinum, which has not yet had its "old order" mining rights converted.

That process was heading for a legal confrontation. It's understood Carroll moved swiftly to calm the situation. That involved, among other measures, getting Anglo to publicly display support for the department of minerals & energy (DME) on the issue of the possible prescription of rights to claim compensation over alleged expropriation of mineral rights.

A point stressed frequently by Anglo is its huge commitment to SA, despite nasty comments to the contrary made by various ANC politicians.

According to former CEO Tony Trahar, Anglo has invested R123,8bn (R144,5bn in 2005 rand values) since 1999 in expansions and capital replacement projects.

This beats the total investment, R16bn, in the motor vehicle manufacturing industry over the same period. Trahar also says the Anglo board has approved the investment of R30bn in coal, platinum, iron ore and diamond projects over the next three years "subject to obtaining the appropriate permits and licences from the DME".

By contrast, investment in SA is likely to be a minor issue for whoever takes over at BHP Billiton from Chip Goodyear.

The group has chopped back on its exposure to the country, selling its ferrochrome and coal operations. That has created intense speculation that BHP Billiton wants out of SA except for its world-class Hillside aluminium smelter at Richards Bay.

That speculation has been denied repeatedly by chairman Vincent Maphai as well as by group executive director Marius Kloppers, who is viewed as one of the top contenders to replace Goodyear.

Whatever happens, the speculation over BHP Billiton's future has helped focus attention on SA's coal sector, which has held "Cinderella" status for more than a decade but is now booming.

Eskom is scrambling to meet the country's surging demand for power and the Phase 5 expansion of the Richards Bay Coal Terminal is opening up the export market to BEE newcomers.

BHP Billiton owns a string of coal assets, of which it has so far sold one, Koornfontein Colliery, and is negotiating the sale of a second, Optimum Colliery.

Exxaro appears to be in pole position, having been awarded the contracts to supply around 14 Mt of coal to the Medupi power station, which Eskom will build adjacent to its existing Matimba power station near Lephalale in Limpopo province. Matimba is supplied by Exxaro's Grootegeluk colliery, to be expanded to meet the requirements of Medupi, which should bring its first generating set on line in 2011.

How many more coal-fired power stations Eskom will build, and where, remains the subject of intense interest, and the country's coal suppliers, ranging from majors like Exxaro and Anglo American to "wannabe" junior coal producers like AIM and JSE-listed GVM Metals, are queuing up for the business.

GVM owns various coal rights north of the Soutpansberg adjacent to resources owned by Rio Tinto which are earmarked for a potential Eskom power station.

On the export side, ARM last year teamed up with Xstrata to form ARMCoal, which holds a 30% stake in Xtrata's SA coal operations. The two are now building the Goedgevonden colliery in Mpumalanga at a cost of R2,9bn to produce 6,6 Mt/year, of which 3,2 Mt will be exported.

Mvelaphanda Resources carried out one of the most interesting deals yet when it announced a "black on black" empowerment deal in December through which it sold 19% to Lazarus Zim's Afripalm holding company for R1,1bn at a 15% discount to the then ruling Mvela share price.

Zim justified the discount in terms of the business he will bring to Mvela - in particular, a BEE deal involving Anglo Platinum - as well as the fact that he's "locked in" until 2014.

Metorex continued its success story with the share rocketing to above R25, from 340c in mid 2006, as it methodically pushed ahead with its Ruashi-Etoile copper cobalt project in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the copper price continued to play ball.

The copper price can be viewed as a benchmark for the general commodity business, which has continued to show strength driven by the China and India growth story, despite periodic scares.

At the beginning of this year - as at the beginning of 2006 - base metal prices dropped sharply, leading some commentators to trumpet the end of the commodity "bubble" because of fears that the Chinese economic miracle was running out of steam.

The copper price bounced back both times and the outlook remains favourable across the spectrum of base metals.