South32 CEO Graham Kerr at Australia’s Melbourne Mining Club earlier this month, where he reminded stakeholders that it was a little over a year since the diversified mining company was spun out of BHP Billiton to allow the world’s largest mining company to focus on its 100-year-plus assets. The split sounded pretty straightforward to begin with, but, in reality, the spinout has involved 22 months of development by 1 500 people taking thousands of process steps in six countries. While South32 is having to reduce workforces as a result of commodity prices being considerably lower than expected, the going has been tragic for BHP Billiton, which is under the cosh for its part in the death of 19 people at the Samarco iron-ore mine, in Brazil.