Rio Tinto, Glencore Resume Talks to Form World’s Largest Mining Company

Initial negotiations collapsed just over a year ago, but both companies have confirmed the merger is back under discussion.

Mining giant Rio Tinto's corporate office in Perth, Australia on Sept. 20, 2025. Wade Zhong/The Epoch Times

Swiss mining company Glencore and Australia’s Rio Tinto are once again in discussions that, if successful, would result in the merger of the two companies and the formation of the world’s largest miner.

Currently, that title is held by another Australian firm, BHP, with a market capitalisation of $161 billion (US$107.79 billion), but a combined Rio Tinto ($142 billion) and Glencore ($65 billion) merger would create an even larger entity.

Both companies expect the merger format would include Rio Tinto’s acquisition of Glencore through a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement.

The move appeared popular with investors in Glencore, with the company’s U.S.-listed shares up 6 percent following the announcement, but Rio Tinto’s Australian-listed shares fell 6.4 percent to their lowest point since July 2022.

On Jan. 8, Glencore announced in a statement that talks had resumed, which prompted Rio Tinto to later release its own statement confirming the situation.

Glencore first approached Rio Tinto with a proposal in late 2024, but the deal did not proceed. While executives declined to give a reason for that failure, RBC Capital analyst Kaan Peker speculate that Rio may want Glencore’s tier-one copper assets in South America but may harbour concerns about its operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Its operations in the African nation have long been problematic for the company, which was accused of using child labour in its mines, dumping acid into the environment, and paying bribes to officials. In 2022, it pleaded guilty to charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and paid fines of US$1.5 billion.

Glencore produces roughly 1 million tonnes of copper each year, while Rio supplies 800,000 tonnes, which would make the combined entity responsible for around 7 percent of global production, according to an Australian Financial Review estimate.

Copper extraction also produces cobalt as a by-product, and both commodities are vital to the electric vehicles, battery manufacturing, and information technology sectors.

Glencore to Remain a Coal Miner

Peker also suspected Rio Tinto may have concerns about Glencore’s determination to remain a coal miner, a sector the Australian company exited a decade ago.

Despite pressure from environmentalists, Glencore announced in August of last year that it would retain its coal business when a survey of shareholders resulted in 95 percent voting in favour of the move. While Europe has reduced coal production, it has been forced to increase imports to replace natural gas from Russia since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, and while many European countries have a larger renewable sector in 2023, 52 percent of the electricity in the Western Balkans was still produced from brown coal.

In 2022, coal alone generated record profits for Glencore, but by 2024, lower prices reduced overall earnings, eroding profitability despite increased output. However, the company last year bought the steelmaking coal unit of Canada’s Teck Resources for $6.9 billion.

Both companies’ statements said that there can be no certainty that an offer will be made, nor on what terms it might proceed.

Rio Tinto, whose head office is in the UK and is thus subject to that country’s takeover rules, has until Feb. 5 to make a formal offer for Glencore or say it will not proceed. Any extension would require approval from the Takeover Panel, an independent body that oversees UK-registered companies.