Peabody Energy Corp. has withdrawn from its agreement to buy Anglo American Plc’s Australian steelmaking coal business for about $3.8 billion, invoking a “material adverse change” clause after a 31 March underground fire shut the Moranbah North mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin. The mine is the largest asset in the package of coking-coal operations Peabody had agreed to acquire in April. Anglo American rejected Peabody’s argument that the incident fundamentally impaired the assets and said it will begin arbitration proceedings to seek damages for what it calls wrongful termination. The company noted that the fire caused no lasting damage to equipment and that work to restart the mine is under way. The collapse of the sale disrupts Anglo’s wider restructuring effort, launched after it rebuffed a takeover approach from BHP last year. In market trading, Peabody shares rose more than 6 percent in New York pre-market dealings, while Anglo American gained about 3 percent in London as investors weighed the prospect of a renewed sales process for the assets.