South Africa has thrown a £31bn bid for mining titan Anglo American into immediate doubt after its mineral resources minister criticised the deal. Gwede Mantashe said he was against the takeover of Anglo by rival BHP Billiton just hours after the proposal was announced. A string of Anglo’s shareholders also attacked the approach, describing it as opportunistic and claiming that BHP had undervalued the company. Mr Mantashe said that South Africa’s previous experience with Australian business BHP was “not positive”. It suggests that the takeover bid – which would create the world’s largest copper miner – is likely to face fierce political opposition in Johannesburg during an election year. South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation (PIC) is the biggest shareholder in Anglo and the miner runs operations across the country. Anglo also controls De Beers, one of the most powerful players in the global diamond market and a South African national champion. BHP merged with South African miner Billiton in 2001 but Mr Mantashe said the transaction, which led to the formation of BHP Billiton, “never did much for South Africa”. Speaking to the Financial Times, he said: “What we saw is that it dumped coal and then created a small company called South32, which is now marginal.” Anglo American shares jumped as much as...