Anglo American Graduate Programme in South Africa

Written by Thabo MokoenaSenior Education Editor

Reviewed & verified by Naledi KhumaloSenior Admissions and Bursaries EditorVerified

Anglo American, the global mining group behind Kumba Iron Ore and De Beers, runs a global Graduate Programme for new graduates with less than two years of work experience. South Africa is one of eight countries where it recruits. There is no single annual deadline. The company says it opens graduate applications on its careers site at various points in the year, and each advert carries its own closing date.

This page is about hiring graduates. Student bursaries linked to Anglo American are covered separately; see the Anglo American provider profile.

Degrees Anglo American recruits

The Anglo American early careers page asks for a degree or a postgraduate degree (Honours or Masters) in a discipline relevant to mining, in particular:

• Engineering and its sub-disciplines
• Commerce
• Data Science
• Human Resources
• Geology
• Safety and Sustainability, and Environment

Beyond the qualification, the company says it wants well-rounded team players with leadership potential, drive and ambition, who contribute to their community and have less than two years of working experience. It publishes no minimum mark or age limit for the programme.

Induction, rotations and stretch roles

Graduates follow what Anglo American calls its Graduate Development Framework, which runs from a Global Graduate Induction event until the graduate takes up a first permanent role. The company describes these parts:

• an induction to the group’s purpose, strategy, values and what it expects of graduates;
• on-the-job learning through real projects, with individual and team responsibility from the start;
• role rotations within the graduate’s business unit, and stretch roles for top performers that can bring exposure to other commodities and countries;
• mentoring, online learning on in-house platforms, coaching from senior leaders, and masterclasses and forums held in person and online.

The framework balances discipline-specific skills with behavioural and leadership skills, and Anglo American says it prepares graduates to take on an entry-level leadership role at the end. The company has not published the length of the programme, the salary or the South African sites where graduates are placed.

Finding a South African graduate advert

For South Africa, the early careers page points to a search of the Anglo American job site filtered for graduate posts. When we checked on 29 September 2026, the group’s recruitment system listed 14 open posts in South Africa and none of them was a graduate post.

According to the company’s hiring FAQ, applications go through the SmartRecruiters system, where candidates build a profile or import one from LinkedIn or Indeed and answer screening questions. The FAQ says most roles are advertised for a minimum of five working days, with the closing date shown on each advert. The careers site lets candidates set up a job alert, which stays active for three months before it has to be renewed. Shortlisted candidates may face a phone or recorded video interview, psychometric and skills assessments, panel interviews of 60 to 90 minutes, and background checks.

Students still at university who want to work in mining can look through mining engineering bursaries and geology bursaries.

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