Anglo American today confirmed that Sir John Parker will become the mining giant’s new chairman.

Sir John will join the board as a non-executive immediately and step into the chairman's role on August 1, replacing Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, who is retiring.

Sir John made it clear that one of his first jobs would be to shore up support for Anglo American's embattled chief executive, Cynthia Carroll, saying: "I look forward to working with the board and the excellent management team led by Cynthia Carroll".

Another task will be to guide the miner as it fights off a merger offer from rival Xstrata, which Anglo American has rejected on the grounds that it is too low.

Sir John said: "Anglo has undergone a major transformation in recent years and I look forward to leading the board through the next stage of the company's development".

Sir John is one of the UK's best known industrialists and his name has been linked to many open chairman roles among FTSE 100 companies. Anglo American said in a stock exchange announcement that Sir John would step down from "several" of the boardroom positions he now has, to make room for his new role.

It is possible that he will resign as chairman of Mondi, the paper company that was spun out of Anglo American two years ago, but will retain the chairmanship of National Grid.

All of Anglo's leading investors have rejected a nil-premium merger with Xstrata . They are now waiting to see if it can raise up to £10 billion to sweeten the deal and give Anglo American shareholders a 30 to 50 per cent premium.

Anglo American’s independent directors had drawn up a shortlist of three for the chairmanship last month: Sir John; Paolo Scaroni, who was formerly with Pilkington, the glassmaker; and Jeroen van der Veer, the former chief executive of Shell.

When Anglo American first began searching for a chairman to take over from Sir Mark Moody-Stuart last year, Sir John emerged as the favourite candidate. But there is understood to have been a split on the Anglo American board and his appointment was blocked by South African directors. Sir Mark extended his term by 12 months because of the failure to agree on his replacement.

Anglo said today Sir John was the universal favourite of the team of non-executive directors who led the search for a new chairman, and was also the unanimous choice of the board.

The South African Government is thought to have expressed concern about the country losing influence with Anglo American, particularly after the appointment of the first non-South African chief executive two years ago. Anglo American has deep roots in the country and is its largest private sector employer with more than 100,000 staff there. The ANC-led Government is also Anglo’s largest shareholder through state pension funds.

Fred Phaswana, the chairman of Anglo Platinum, an Anglo subsidiary, was considered as an alternative candidate last year but he was blocked by City investors who did not know him. This led to accusations of racism from the Government, which has continued to urge a black candidate for chairman.

Susan Shabangu, the Mining Minister, said yesterday: “Anglo American is rooted in South Africa and it is one of the single biggest players in the South African economy. Therefore, in line with government policy, we would prefer to have a black South African as the chairperson of Anglo. We believe this would be a positive signal going forward.”

But Anglo American has insisted that as a global group it should not restrict its search to one country. Its assets are increasingly located outside South Africa and it moved its base to London a decade ago. Anglo was founded by Sir Ernest Oppenheimer in 1917 to mine gold near Johannesburg.

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