Rio Tinto and Glencore have been discussing combining their businesses, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported.
The Australian mining giant and the Swiss commodities trader and miner have recently held “early-stage talks” about a deal, according to the newswire adding that “it’s unclear whether the talks are still live.” Rio Tinto is the world’s second most valuable mining company and shares with its Melbourne-based neighbour BHP the distinction of being valued at more than $100 billion, but only just.
Rio’s stock was worth $103 billion on Thursday while Glencore, which in 2023 made an unsuccessful bid for Canada’s Teck Resources, is valued at $55 billion in London – placing it sixth. As with BHP’s failed attempt at acquiring Ango American last year a Rio and Glencore combination is centred around copper, thanks to the bellwether metal’s bright long term prospects as the central commodity enabling the global energy transition.
For the rest of this article: https://www.mining.com/rio-tinto-and-glencore-discuss-potential-merger/