(Reuters) – Glencore approached Rio Tinto late last year about combining the two big copper producers but the discussions are no longer active, a person familiar with the matter said.
The companies declined to comment. A merger between the firms has the potential to be the largest ever in the mining industry.
Below are details on the companies’ businesses and assets:
GLENCORE
The London-listed miner produces copper, cobalt, zinc, lead, nickel and coal. Copper, of which it produced 1 million metric tonnes in 2023, and zinc are its biggest revenue-generating metals.
Glencore’s copper assets are largely concentrated in Chile, Peru and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It has zinc, nickel, cobalt, and coal operations in Australia.
Its trading division handles coal, oil, liquefied natural gas and related products as well as metals. The business generated around one-third of its operating income in 2023.
The company has a market value of roughly $55 billion. Last year, it booked $4.3 billion in net profit on revenue of $217 billion.
RIO TINTO
The world’s No. 2 miner counts including iron ore, aluminium, and copper as its top revenue-generating metals.
It is the world’s largest iron ore producer, with its operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia crucial to the global supply of the steel-making commodity.
It generated some 328 million tonnes of iron ore last year and 697,000 tonnes of copper.
Rio is working towards ramping up production at its Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia, one of the world’s largest-known copper and gold deposits. It expects an average mined copper production of about 500,000 tonnes per year between 2028 and 2036.
Listed in Sydney and London, it has a market value of $103 billion. Last year it made a net profit of $10 billion on revenue of $54 billion.
(Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
