Mining firms Rio Tinto and Glencore restart $260bn merger talks

Rio Tinto and Glencore have restarted talks over a merger that would create the world’s largest mining company.The talks come almost a year after previous discussions between the two mining companies collapsed. If a deal is agreed, it would create a global mining business with an enterprise value of more than $260bn (£193bn).The two companies said on Friday that they were in “preliminary discussions” about a “possible combination of some or all of their businesses, which could include an all-share merger”.Rio Tinto, which has an enterprise value of $162bn, said the deal under discussion would potentially result in it acquiring Glencore.Rio Tinto, founded in 1873, has about 60,000 employees across 35 countries, while Glencore – which was established in the 1970s as a trading company – has operations in more than 30 countries and a workforce of about 150,000 through employees and contractors.“The parties’ current expectation is that any merger transaction would be effected through the acquisition of Glencore by Rio Tinto by way of a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement,” the company said in a statement. “There can be no certainty that an offer will be made or as to the terms of any such offer, should one be made.”The resumption of the talks follows the $53bn merger of the London-listed miner Anglo American with its Canadian rival Teck in September, combining two of the world’s largest copper producers.Anglo had previously rebuffed a £39bn takeover proposal from BHP Group, while Teck rejected a buyout offer from Glencore in 2023 for £16.6bn.Copper prices hit an all-time high of more than $13,300 a tonne this week, as analysts predict there could be a supply shortfall of as much as 10m tonnes by 2040.“Last year’s theme of consolidation in the natural resources sector has shown no sign of let-up in the early part of 2026,” said Derren Nathan, the head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown.“A full combination would create a global leader in multiple industrial metals including iron ore and transition metals such as copper, cobalt and lithium.” The resources are critical in the production of technology products, including smartphones, at the centre of the boom in AI.In December, Gary Nagle, Glencore’s chief executive, said the company’s aim was to become “the biggest copper producer in the world”. It is the world’s sixth-largest copper producer and the largest listed coal producer.Rio Tinto and Glencore held talks over a tie-up in 2024 but they failed on issues including valuation, who would run the combined company and the future of Glencore’s coalmining operations.In May, Glencore confirmed a restructure of its business to move its coal operations into a separate Australian-based entity. Rio Tinto sold its last coalmine in 2018.“The diverse asset base and likely synergies have the potential to provide further protection against commodity price fluctuations,” said Nathan. “But just how Glencore’s coal and trading arms fit in with Rio’s business model, and push for improved sustainability credentials, are key questions to answer.”Under UK takeover rules, Rio Tinto has until 5 February to either make a formal offer for Glencore or confirm it is not proceeding with a deal.Rio is listed on the FTSE 100 and on the Australian stock exchange. Its shares fell 6% in Australia on Friday. Rio’s London listed shares fell 1.5%, while Glencore’s rose 8% in early trading on Friday.Nagle, the former head of Glencore’s coal assets, took over from the long-time boss Ivan Glasenberg in 2020. Glasenberg, who ran Glencore for 18 years, was one of a handful of top executives to become billionaires at the company’s colossal flotation in 2011.The flotation revealed that Glasenberg had a paper fortune of almost £6bn, a figure so large that his 3,600 neighbours in the Swiss village of Rüschlikon received a tax cut.Glasenberg’s close lieutenants, Daniel Maté, Telis Mistakidis, Tor Peterson and Alex Beard, all owned stakes worth about £2bn at that time.Glencore was founded in 1974 by the controversial metals trader Marc Rich but, in 1983, he was indicted on charges described by the then US attorney for New York, Rudy Giuliani, as “the biggest tax evasion case in United States history”.In December, Glencore’s Nagle said that the mining industry needed to further consolidate “not just for the sake of size, but also to create material synergies, to create relevance, to attract talent, to attract capital”.In 2007, Rio Tinto bought Canada’s Alcan to create the biggest producer of aluminium in the world, a move to diversify beyond its core iron ore and copper businesses.In the same year, Freeport-McMoRan completed its acquisition of Phelps Dodge Corp to form the world’s largest publicly traded copper company.Five years later, Glencore agreed an all-share takeover of Switzerland-headquartered Xstrata, beating a hostile bid from Aloca, creating a commodities giant spanning mining, agriculture, oil and trading.In 2023, Newmont, the world’s largest goldminer, acquired Australia’s biggest gold producer, Newcrest Mining.