TALK OF TAKEOVER has long swirled around 107-year-old Anglo American, once among the biggest mining companies in the world. On April 25th speculation turned to specifics when BHP, the $140bn behemoth that is today top of the pile by market value, offered to buy its diminished rival (minus Anglo’s South African business) for $39bn. It then emerged that Elliott Management, an activist hedge-fund known for picking apart lumbering giants to…