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Glencore plc is an Anglo-Swiss multinational
commodity trading A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products. The primary sector includes agricultural products, energy products, and metals. Soft commodities may be perishable and harvested, w ...
and
mining company This is an incomplete alphabetical list of mining companies. A * Adex Mining * Aditya Birla Group * African Rainbow Minerals * Agnico Eagle * Aiteo * Almonty Industries * Alumina * Anaconda Copper * Anglo American (mining) * Anglo Platinum ...
with headquarters in Baar, Switzerland. Glencore's oil and gas headquarters are in
London, England London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
as well as its primary listing being on the
London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...
, and it is one of the largest components of the
FTSE 100 The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most market capitalisation, highly capitalised ...
by
market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by ...
. Its registered office is in
Saint Helier St Helier (; Jèrriais: ; ) is the Capital city, capital of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. It is the most populous of the twelve parishes of Jersey, with a population of 35,822, over one-third of the island' ...
,
Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...
, a
Crown Dependency The Crown Dependencies are three offshore island territories in the British Islands that are self-governing possessions of the British Crown: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey, both located in the English Channel and toge ...
of the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. By some estimates, it is the world's largest commodity trader, and among the world's largest companies. The company was formed in 1994 by a
management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...
of Marc Rich + Co AG (itself founded in 1974). The company merged with
Xstrata Xstrata plc was an Anglo-Swiss Multinational corporation, multinational mining company headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It was a major producer of coal (and the world's largest exporter o ...
in 2013, increasing its size substantially. Before that, the company was already one of the world's largest integrated producers and marketers of
commodities In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that specifically has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them. Th ...
. It was the largest company in Switzerland as well as the world's largest commodities trading company, with a 2010 global market share of 60% in internationally tradable zinc, 50% in internationally tradable copper, 9% in the internationally tradable
grain market The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals such as wheat, barley, maize, rice, and other food grains. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other agri ...
and 3% in the internationally tradable oil market. Glencore has a number of production facilities all around the world and supplied metals, minerals, crude oil, oil products, coal, natural gas and agricultural products to international customers in the automotive, power generation, steel production and food processing industries. It was listed on the
London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...
in May 2011 and was a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chips listed on ...
. It had a secondary listing on the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (, SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. It is one of the largest stock exchanges in Asia and the List of major stock exchanges, 9th largest globally by market ...
, but had withdrawn from January 2018. Glencore's shares started trading on the
Johannesburg Stock Exchange JSE Limited (previously the JSE Securities Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange) is the largest stock exchange in Africa. It is located in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa, after it moved from downtown Johannesburg in 2000. In 2003 ...
in November 2013. The
Qatar Investment Authority The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA; ) is Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. The QIA was founded by the State of Qatar in 2005 to strengthen the country's economy by diversifying into new asset classes. In November 2024, the QIA had an estimated $526 ...
was its biggest shareholder as of 2016. In March 2022, Qatar's Sovereign Wealth Fund announced it would sell a stake worth £812 million (
US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
1.1 billion) in Glencore Plc. The company has been embroiled in numerous controversies and investigations related to environmental damage and corrupt practices. The company has pleaded guilty to multiple instances of bribery and corrupt practices as part of investigations in the United States and the United Kingdom.


History


1974–1994: formation and sale

The company was founded in 1974 as Marc Rich & Co. AG by commodity traders
Marc Rich Marc Rich (born Marcell David Reich; December 18, 1934 – June 26, 2013) was an international commodity, commodities Trader (finance), trader, financier, and businessman. He founded the commodities company Glencore, and was later indicted in the ...
and
Pincus Green Pincus Green (born July 5, 1934) is an American oil and gas commodities trader. In 1983 Green and his business partner Marc Rich were indicted on charges of tax evasion relating to illegal trading with Iran, including deals that were done while t ...
. In 1993, a number of Marc Rich employees, led by Claude Dauphin, left to set up another trading company,
Trafigura Trafigura Group Pte. Ltd. is a Singaporean-based multinational commodities company, with major regional hubs in Geneva, Houston, Montevideo and Mumbai, founded in 1993. The company trades in base metals and energy. It is the world's largest pri ...
. In 1994, after failing to take control of the zinc market and losing $172 million, Rich was forced to sell his majority share in the company to Glencore International, the commodities trading and industrial company. Glencore's name is an abbreviation of "Global Energy Commodity Resources".


2005: dealings with "rogue states"

The
Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...
's
Radio National ABC Radio National, more commonly known as Radio National or simply RN, is an Australian nationwide public service radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. ...
reported in 2005 that Glencore "has been accused of illegal dealings with
rogue state "Rogue state" (or sometimes "outlaw state") is a term applied by some international theorists to states that they consider threatening to the world's peace. These states meet certain criteria, such as being ruled by authoritarian or totalitaria ...
s:
apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English:  , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
South Africa,
USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
,
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
, and
Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
under
Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...
", and has a "history of busting UN embargoes to profit from corrupt or despotic regimes". Specifically, the CIA alleged Glencore had paid $3,222,780 in illegal
kickbacks A kickback is a form of negotiated bribery in which a commission is paid to the bribe-taker in exchange for services rendered. Generally speaking, the remuneration (money, goods, or services handed over) is negotiated ahead of time. The kickback ...
to obtain oil in the course of the UN
oil-for-food programme The Oil-for-Food Programme (OIP) was established by the United Nations in 1995 (under UN Security Council Resolution 986) to allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine, and other humanitarian needs for ordinary I ...
for
Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
. The company denied these charges, according to the CIA report quoted by ABC.


2005–2011: Glencore, Dan Gertler, and the Congo

In 2005, proceeds from an oil sale to Glencore were seized as fraudulent gains as part of an investigation into corruption in the
Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...
. In 2007, Nikanor was merged into Katanga in a transaction valued at US$3.3 billion. In May 2011, the company launched an IPO which valued the business at US$61 billion and created five new billionaires. Trading was limited to institutional investors for the first week and private investors were not allowed to buy shares until 24 May 2011.


2011: financial and accounting manipulations

In 2011, five non-government organisations filed a complaint to the
OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; , OCDE) is an international organization, intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and international trade, wor ...
against a subsidiary of Glencore over allegations that a mine it owns in
Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...
may not be paying enough tax on its profits. This complaint was due to alleged financial and accounting manipulations that had been supposedly performed by the two companies' subsidiary, Mopani Copper Mines Plc (MCM), to evade taxation in Zambia. A draft
Grant Thornton Grant Thornton is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the seventh-largest in the world by revenue and the sixth-largest by number of employees. The network consists of independent accounting an ...
report alleged that tax avoidance by Glencore in Zambia cost the Zambian Government hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. The avoidance was allegedly facilitated through
transfer pricing Transfer pricing refers to the rules and methods for pricing transactions within and between enterprises under common ownership or control. Because of the potential for cross-border controlled transactions to distort taxable income, tax authorit ...
and inflated costs at Glencore's
Mopani Copper Mine Mopani Copper Mines PLC (also known as Mopani) is a Zambian company that produces and sells copper and cobalt to the international market, being one of the biggest mines and exporters in the world. After being owned by ZCCM Investment Holdings ...
, which is controlled through the
British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...
, a recognised tax haven. Glencore and its own auditor,
Deloitte Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wi ...
, rejected these allegations. As of 2013, Glencore's payments to Zambia's government had increased. Due to weak global prices for the assets Glencore owned, particularly coal and copper producers, and for the commodities in which Glencore traded, the company showed a net operating loss of $676 million for the first half of 2015, and the company's stocks fell, as a result. Concerns cited by financial analysts to explain the falling stock price included a weak global commodity market and Glencore's high level of debt $30 billion. The company reduced its debt by selling off stock and assets.


2011: associations with other mining companies

Along with several other major coal producers, Glencore is also a large shareholder in globalCOAL, the online physical coal trading platform. The board of globalCOAL contains a number of power utility shareholders. Relationships also exist with
Century Aluminum Century Aluminum Company is a US-based producer of primary aluminum, with aluminum plants in Kentucky, South Carolina and Iceland. It is the largest producer of primary aluminum in the United States. The company is a publicly held corporation lis ...
Co. (CENX; 44% economic ownership interest)Lesova, Polya
"Commodities giant Glencore readies landmark IPO: Listing may value firm at,0 billion, give it cash for acquisitions"
''
MarketWatch ''MarketWatch'' is a website that provides financial information, business news, analysis, and stock market data. It is a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, a property of News Corp, along with ''The Wall Street Journal'' and '' Barron's.'' ...
'', 13 April 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
in the US; Glencore partial subsidiary
Minara Resources Minara Resources was a mining company in Western Australia, specialising in the mining of cobalt and nickel. Minara operated the Murrin Murrin Mine located in the north-east Western Australian Goldfields. Based in Perth, Minara Resources was f ...
, a 70.5% stake in one of Australia's top three nickel producers and 8.8% in United Company Rusal (HK:486), the Russian aluminium giant that went public in 2010. In mid-2011, Century was called "one of the most harrowing stocks of the past few years" but identified as a risky but potentially profitable investment for the future.


2011–2012: initial public offering

Glencore was the subject of an
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
(IPO) in May 2011 in a dual listing in London and Hong Kong valued at about $US60 billion. The 1,637-page document revealed invaluable information about this private company that has remained discreet for thirty-seven years.
Ivan Glasenberg Ivan Glasenberg (born 7 January 1957) is a South African business executive and former chief executive officer of Glencore, one of the world's largest commodity trading and mining companies. He was the company's CEO from 2002 to 2021. Glasenberg ...
's shareholding was diluted from 18.1% before the IPO percent to 15.8% afterwards. Daniel Mate and Telis Mistakidis, zinc, copper, and lead co-directors were diluted from 6.9% to 6%. Glencore went public to raise gross proceeds of around $10 billion. According to Reuters, Glencore is known for its "opportunistic but lucrative acquisition strategy." In May 2011,
United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...
state-owned
Aabar Investments Mubadala Investment Company PJSC (), or simply Mubadala, is a state-owned global investment firm that acts as one of the sovereign wealth funds of the government of Abu Dhabi. The company was established in 2017 when then-named Mubadala Developme ...
confirmed an investment of $850 million in Glencore International plc as a cornerstone investor with an intention to invest an additional $150 million in the Global Offer. The investment made Aabar the largest cornerstone investor in the initial public offering (IPO) and the largest new shareholder of Glencore after its IPO, giving Aabar a 1.4% stake. The two firms intend to explore areas of co-operation. In November 2012, Abu Dhabi's Aabar Investments, a unit of Abu Dhabi's state-owned United Arab Emirates
International Petroleum Investment Company Mubadala Investment Company PJSC (), or simply Mubadala, is a state-owned global investment firm that acts as one of the sovereign wealth funds of the government of Abu Dhabi. The company was established in 2017 when then-named Mubadala Developme ...
, wrote off more than $392-million of its $1-billion investment into Glencore's IPO less than two years after investing it. Aabar Investments was the largest new shareholder in Glencore.


2012–2013: merger with Xstrata

Prior to its merger with
Xstrata Xstrata plc was an Anglo-Swiss Multinational corporation, multinational mining company headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It was a major producer of coal (and the world's largest exporter o ...
, Glencore is reported to have served as a marketing partner for the company. As of 2006, Glencore leaders and Ivan Glasenberg were on the board of Xstrata, which Strothotte chaired. According to ''The Sunday Times'', by 2006, Glencore controlled 40% of Xstrata stock and appointed Xstrata CEO,
Mick Davis Sir Michael Lawrence Davis (born 15 February 1958) is a British-South African businessman, financier, philanthropist, and former politician. Davis was the chief executive (CEO) of Xstrata plc, an Anglo-Swiss multinational mining company, until ...
. In February 2012, Glencore International Plc, agreed to buy
Xstrata Xstrata plc was an Anglo-Swiss Multinational corporation, multinational mining company headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It was a major producer of coal (and the world's largest exporter o ...
Plc for 39.1 billion (US$62 billion) in shares. Glencore offered 2.8 new shares for each Xstrata share in agreed all-share "merger of equal". It is the biggest mining takeover ever, and after approval would create an entity with 2012 sales of US$209 billion. In June 2012, Glencore and Xstrata began to reconsider the proposed retention package for their merger, following shareholder opposition to a huge payout for executives. In total, 73 key executives stood to receive over GBP 170 million under the initial retention package. In October 2012,
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
reported that Glencore had more ships than the British
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
. Glencore's operations in 40 countries handled 3% of the world's oil consumption. Xstrata's operations in more than 20 countries employed 70,000 people. According to mining analyst John Meyer, if the two companies merged into Glencore Xstrata, they would be the 4th largest commodities trader in the world. Just before completing its forced April 2013 takeover of mining rival Xstrata as it awaited Chinese regulatory approval for its long-planned merger, the world's largest diversified commodities trader, the annual income of Glencore fell 25% percent, as its trading division offset the impact of weak commodity prices. Including the impact of an impairment related to a reclassification of its holding in Russian aluminium producer RUSAL, net income fell 75%. On 2 May 2013, it completed the merger with Xstrata. On 20 May 2014, Glencore Xstrata changed its name to Glencore plc. After the merger with Glencore, Xstrata CFO Trevor Reid announced that he would no longer work as employee but would become a consultant. After 11 years of involvement, this marked a massive shift in the company's strategy and Xstrata was entering a post-Reid era.


2013–Present: further investment

"In
Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
, the current government has tried to reduce the role played by middlemen such as Glencore with state oil company
Petroecuador EP Petroecuador (''Empresa Estatal Petróleos del Ecuador''; ''Empresa Pública Petroecuador''; meaning: State Petroleum Company of Ecuador) is the national oil company of Ecuador. Ecuador is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporti ...
" due to questions about transparency and follow-through, according to Fernando Villavicencio, a Quito-based oil sector analyst, writing in 2011. In May 2014 the company announced it would close its underground
Newlands coal mine The Newlands Coal Mine is a coal mine located in the north of the Bowen Basin at Newlands about 28 km northwest of Glenden in North Queensland, Australia. The mine has coal reserves amounting to 413 million tonnes of low ash steamin ...
in Queensland, Australia in late 2015. The mine, begun in 1983, produced 2.8 million tonnes of thermal coal in 2013. The company had earlier suspended operations at its Ravensworth underground mine following falling coal prices, escalating production costs, and a higher Australian dollar. In June 2018 Glencore purchased a 78% stake in Ale Combustíveis S.A., a Brazilian fuel distribution company. Through Ale Glencore aimed to expand its fuel distribution network by forging agreements with unbranded gas stations. In February 2019, Glencore announced it would reduce production at one of its biggest
copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
and
cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. ...
mines operations in Congo. The country's Mutanda mine produced 199,000 tons of copper and 27,000 tons of cobalt in 2018, accounting for roughly one-fifth of global cobalt production. The production curbs are likely temporary, as the company is exploring new mining techniques for the site. GlencoreXstrata operates a gold mine in
Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...
, and nickel mines in
Nunavik Nunavik (; ; ) is an area in Canada which comprises the northern third of the province of Quebec, part of the Nord-du-Québec region and nearly coterminous with Kativik. Covering a land area of north of the 55th parallel, it is the homelan ...
in Canada. In October 2020, Glencore provided $10 million in
bridge financing A bridge loan is a type of short-term loan, typically taken out for a period of 2 weeks to 3 years pending the arrangement of larger or longer-term financing. It is usually called a bridging loan in the United Kingdom, also known as a "caveat loan ...
to Falco Resources, a gold and copper miner operating in
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
. In October 2020, Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg argued that there was no environmental benefit in divesting from coal assets since the spun-off coal mines would likely be taken over by other players without any regard for the Paris climate goals. He instead argued for capping coal mine production, thereby running them down, and using the thus generated cash to increase the production of other raw materials in high demand due to the global energy transformation, such as
nickel Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...
, copper and cobalt. Two months later, in December 2020, Glasenberg announced that he will be retiring in 2021 thus stepping out of the CEO position after nearly 20 years. He will be succeeded by South African
Gary Nagle Gary Nagle (born 1975) is a South African business executive, and the CEO of Glencore. Nagle earned degrees in commerce and accounting from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He qualified as a chartered accountant in South Afr ...
, who is currently running the firm's coal business. In February 2022, Glencore acquired
Newmont Newmont Corporation is an American gold mining company based in Greenwood Village, Colorado. It is the world's largest gold mining corporation. Incorporated in 1921, it holds ownership of gold mines in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Do ...
's 18.75% interest in the MARA project in Argentina, which increased Glencore's interest to 43.75%. Glencore will pay $124.9 million at closing and $30 million in installments upon commercial production at an annual interest rate of 6% (not to exceed $50 million). MARA is a joint venture between
Yamana Gold Yamana Gold Inc. is a Canadian company that owns and operates gold, silver and copper mines in Canada, Chile, Brazil and Argentina. Headquartered in Toronto, the company was founded in 1994 and became listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1995 ...
, Glencore and Newmont in the Catamarca province of Argentina. Proven and probable mineral reserves - 5.4 million tons of
copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
and 7.4 million
ounces The ounce () is any of several different units of mass, weight, or volume and is derived almost unchanged from the , an Ancient Roman unit of measurement. The avoirdupois ounce (exactly ) is avoirdupois pound; this is the United States cus ...
of
gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
. In 2023, Glencore acquired a 56.25% interest in the MARA project from
Pan American Silver Pan American Silver Corporation is a mining company based in Canada with operations in Latin America. The company has mines and other projects in Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. It is one of the world's biggest silver producers; in 2017 th ...
. The company paid $475 million plus a
royalty Royalty may refer to: * the mystique/prestige bestowed upon monarchs ** one or more monarchs, such as kings, queens, emperors, empresses, princes, princesses, etc. *** royal family, the immediate family of a king or queen-regnant, and sometimes h ...
of 0.75% of the
net smelter return Net Smelter Return (NSR) is the net revenue that the owner of a mining property receives from the sale of the mine's metal/non metal products less transportation and refining costs. As a royalty it refers to the fraction of net smelter return that ...
(NSR). Once commissioned, MARA will be one of the world's top 25 copper producers, with a capacity of 200,000 tonnes per annum for the first 10 years. In August 2022, the market predicted that Glencore would deliver a record profit due to its ability to thrive in volatile markets, and particularly because of its
coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...
business that was growing rapidly during the 2022 global energy crisis. The use of coal, even in Europe, is increasing by double digit percentages as it replaces expensive
natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...
from
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
. While traditional mining companies such as
BHP BHP Group Limited, founded as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, is an Australian multinational mining and metals corporation. BHP was established in August 1885 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. As of 2024, BHP was the world ...
and Rio Tinto have experienced a slowdown due to a lower demand for
iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
and
copper ore Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
s by China, Glencore was able to increase its business mostly with coal, despite the dirty image this form of energy has. Business analysts forecasted that Glencore's dividends could exceed $10 billion in total in 2022. In September 2022, Glencore said it planned to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 aiming at a 40% reduction in carbon footprint by 2035 compared to its 2019 levels, making them on track with the Paris agreement on climate change. In November 2023, Glencore acquired the steelmaking coal business of
Teck Resources Teck Resources Limited is a diversified natural resources company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, that is engaged in mining and mineral development, including coal for the steelmaking industry, copper, zinc, and energy. Secondary ...
for $9 billion. At the same time, Glencore announced its intention to spin off its coal assets by 2025 into a separate entity that would be listed on the
New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...
with secondary listings on the
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
and
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...
exchanges. The acquisition of Teck Resources' steelmaking coal business completed in July 2024, and Glencore announced the following month that the planned spin off of its coal assets had been abandoned. In August 2024, Glencore announced its decision to retain its coal business, reversing previous plans for a
spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...
. This decision came after extensive consultation with shareholders, with over 95% of those expressing a preference supporting the retention of the coal and
carbon steel Carbon steel is a steel with carbon content from about 0.05 up to 2.1 percent by weight. The definition of carbon steel from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) states: * no minimum content is specified or required for chromium, cobalt ...
materials business. The company cited the potential for enhanced cash generation and the ability to fund opportunities in transition
metals A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. These properties are all associated with having electrons available at the Fermi level, as against no ...
as key reasons for this strategy. The acquisition of Elk Valley Resources (EVR) in July 2024 significantly expanded Glencore's coal operations. This addition is expected to increase the company's potential saleable coal by over 30% through to the end of mine life, with EVR's metallurgical coal mines having an average life of 31 years, extending beyond 2050. Despite retaining its coal assets, Glencore maintains its commitment to achieving climate neutrality by 2050. However, the company's climate plan now requires updating to account for the increased coal exposure resulting from the EVR acquisition.


Controversies


Colombia

In 2006, Swiss public television ( TSR) reported that allegations of corruption and severe human rights violations were being raised against Glencore due to the alleged conduct of its Colombian
Cerrejón Cerrejón is a large Coal mining, open-pit coal mine in Northern Colombia owned by Glencore. At Cerrejón, low-ash, low-sulphur bituminous coal from the Cerrejón Formation is excavated. At over the mine is one of the largest of its type, the la ...
mining subsidiary. Local union president Francisco Ramirez accused Cerrejón of forced expropriations and evacuations of entire villages to enable mine expansion, in complicity with Colombian authorities. A representative of the local
Wayuu The Wayuu (also Wayu, Wayú, Guajiro, Wahiro) are an Indigenous ethnic group of the Guajira Peninsula in northernmost Colombia and northwest Venezuela. The Wayuu language is part of the Arawakan language family. Throughout their history, they ...
community also accused Colombian paramilitary and military units, including those charged with Cerrejón mining security, of forcibly driving Wayuu people off their land in what she described as a "massacre". In 2012, a
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
investigation uncovered sale documents showing the company had paid the associates of paramilitary killers in Colombia. In 2011, a Colombian court was told by former paramilitaries that they stole the land so they could sell it to Glencore's subsidiary Prodeco, to start an open-cast coal mine; the court accepted their evidence and concluded that coal was the motive for the massacre. Glencore disputed the court's ruling. In 2009, Glencore/Xstrata's "huge coal operation in Colombia, Prodeco, was fined a total of nearly $700,000 for several environmental violations unning in earlier years including waste disposal without a permit and producing coal without an environmental management plan". Glencore/Xstrata's activities in Colombia under their subsidiary, Prodeco, was investigated by the Netherlands-based NGO, Pax for Peace. They found that "From 1996 to 2006, residents of the Cesar mining region of Colombia, from which European power utilities source most of their coal, have suffered greatly from paramilitary violence ... Prodeco mining companies have supported the paramilitary forces with finance, equipment, and information. The mining companies deny any involvement, but those victims of human rights violations who stand up for their rights, are still being threatened." The coal mined by Prodeco is termed "Blood Coal". Pax released a report and included the testimony of victims and the paramilitary that attacked the indigenous population.


Democratic Republic of the Congo

The company's Luilu copper refinery uses acid to extract the copper. For three years after taking over the mine, it continued to allow the waste acid to flow into a river. The chief executive, Ivan Glasenberg, was interviewed for
Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...
by John Sweeney and said 'It was impossible to remedy any way faster' Glencore said the pollution started long before the company took over the refinery and that it has now ended. A reporter for ''The Guardian'' found children as young as ten years underground at the
Tilwezembe Tilwezembe is an open-pit copper and cobalt mine in Lualaba Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo owned by Katanga Mining, a subsidiary of Glencore. Officially, Glencore has shuttered the mine, but the site is still being used by artis ...
mine, which the company had said in a 2008 prospectus that it had closed due to falling copper prices. Prices rebounded later. CEO Glasenberg said the company does not profit from
child labor Child labour is the exploitation of children through any form of work that interferes with their ability to attend regular school, or is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such exploitation is prohibited by legislation w ...
, and the child miners went with
artisanal mining Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a blanket term for a type of subsistence mining involving a miner who may or may not be officially employed by a List of mining companies, mining company but works independently, mining minerals using the ...
by nearby residents that Glencore was trying to prevent. But ''Panorama'' tracked a shipment of copper from the mine to Groupe Bazano plant and from that plant to a Glencore
smelter Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron, copper, silver, tin, lead and zin ...
in
Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...
. Glencore was also accused of acquiring illicit "
conflict minerals The eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has a Kivu conflict, history of conflict, where various armies, rebel groups, and outside actors have profited from mining while contributing to violence and exploitation during wars in the regio ...
" In a detailed letter sent to Global Witness, the company denied any wrongdoing. Glencore acquired stakes in the Kansuki mine in Congo's southern
Katanga Province Katanga was one of the four large provinces created in the Belgian Congo in 1914. It was one of the eleven provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1966 and 2015, when it was split into the Tanganyika Province, Tanganyika, Hau ...
in 2012. According to Global Witness, Congo's government transferred a 75% stake in Kansuki mine in secret and at vastly undervalued prices in July 2010 to a company in which Dan Gertler, who is a close friend of President
Joseph Kabila Joseph Kabila Kabange ( , ; born 4 June 1971) is a Congolese politician and former military officer who served as the fourth President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2001 to 2019. He took office ten days after the assassination o ...
, has an interest. Just a month later, in August 2010, Glencore took half the shares of the company that acquired that 75% stake, becoming the operator of the mine. Glencore is financing the entire development of the Kansuki mine, thereby carrying the costs for the other partner companies, which are associated with Mr. Gertler. Glencore said at the time "During the period when these transactions took place, Glencore had decided in general not to increase its shareholdings in DRC projects." Glencore acquired a 50% share in SAMREF Congo SPRL in 2007, a Congolese-registered company holding 80% of the Mutanda Mine. According to Global Witness, SAMREF recommended on 1 March 2011 that Congo's state-run company
Gécamines La Générale des Carrières et des Mines (Gécamines) is a Congolese commodity trading and mining company headquartered in Lubumbashi, in the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is a state-controlled corporation founded i ...
, holding the other 20% of the Mutanda Mine, sell this share to an entity also associated with Dan Gertler and went on to question the links between Glencore and Dan Gertler. Glencore has been designated operator of the Mutanda Mine. Glencore has responded a number of times to Global Witness regarding these allegations. In March 2018, it was reported that Glencore would sell one third (13,800 tonnes) of its cobalt output to China's battery recycler GEM. 18,000 tonnes are to be sold in 2019, and 21,000 in 2020. In December 2020, the company extended the agreement with GEM to at least 2029. During the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland, CEO Glasenberg stated "if cobalt falls into the hands of the Chinese, yeah you won't see EVs being produced in Europe etc." Yet, Glasenberg then said that he was prepared to sell DRC cobalt mines to China if the price was good. Concurrently, a Chinese take-over of some of the mines became a real possibility due to a legal dispute about royalty payments to Gertler and Gécamines. The DRC supplies 60% of the world's cobalt ore, while China produces more than 80% of the world's refined cobalt. In December 2018, Bloomberg reported that the Chinese battery firm GEM withdrew from its purchase contract with the commodities trader due to a price crash and oversupply of cobalt ore and recycled sources. In November 2018, export stopped due to oversupply and uranium contamination at the Kamoto Project; the company planned to fix this with a US$25 million ion-exchange refining plant. In a June 2018 "debt-for-equity swap", Glencore's
Katanga Mining Katanga Mining Ltd was a mining company operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with its headquarters in Canada. Katanga Mining operated a major mine complex in the Congo's Katanga Province, producing refined copper and cobalt. It cl ...
Ltd. agreed to a recapitalization plan involving a US$5.6 billion debt write-off and a $150 million payment to the Congolese state mining company Gécamines. According to company sources, Gertler will receive a royalty of about 25 million euros in 2018. Later in June 2018, Glencore also announced that it had resumed paying royalties to Gertler's Ventora Development in unpaid and future royalties from the subsidiaries Mutanda Mining ($695 million) and Kamoto Copper Co ($2.28 billion). Gertler had sued Glencore in a Congolese court after payments stopped when he was sanctioned by the U.S. government in December 2017. The mines produce
copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
and
cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. ...
, needed for lithium-ion batteries in mobile devices and electric vehicles. Glencore and Gertler were in a legal dispute, threatening the strategic supply of the metals and ownership of the mining entities. Glencore paid the royalties in a currency other than dollars to skirt sanctions and discussed the deal with Swiss and U.S. authorities. Glencore also settled a dispute involving the Kamoto copper and cobalt mine, but differences remain about tax and royalty payment. In July 2018, the DRC enforced a new mining code, which forced Glencore to pay higher taxes. In response, the company began talks with the Congolese government. In August, CEO Glasberg announced that Glencore was considering legal action. On 22 June 2021, the company reported the Mutanda mine would be reopened towards the end of 2021 and return to production in 2022. Earlier, Glencore officials discussed the re-opening of the mine with Congo's mining ministry in
Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ), formerly named Léopoldville from 1881–1966 (), is the Capital city, capital and Cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kinshasa is one of the world's fastest-grow ...
. Cobalt prospects for the company increased significantly since the inception of a long-term battery supply contract with
Tesla Motors Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, it designs, manufactures and sells battery electric vehicles (BEVs), stationary battery energy storage devices from hom ...
in mid-2020. From 2007 to 2018, Glencore paid $27.5 million to third parties to bribe government officials in Congo. In December 2022, the company agreed to pay $180 million to Congo to settle the case.


Morocco

In 2013 and 2014, a subsidiary of Glencore Xstrata was awarded two offshore drilling licences off the coast of
Western Sahara Western Sahara is a territorial dispute, disputed territory in Maghreb, North-western Africa. It has a surface area of . Approximately 30% of the territory () is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 70% is ...
.


Zambia

According to a Reuters article in 2011 " ficials in Zambia believe pollution from Glencore's Mopani mine is causing
acid rain Acid rain is rain or any other form of Precipitation (meteorology), precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Most water, including drinking water, has a neutral pH that exists b ...
and health problems in an area where 5 million people live." The upgrade of the Mopani Mines asset plant was completed in March 2014 eliminating the emissions of 97 per cent of sulphur dioxide emissions in line with the recommended international standards by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The emissions were reported to exceed the WHO-recommendations by a factor of 70 up to 2013. The emissions now exceed the recommendations by 3% of 70 = 210%. In January 2019, a delegation from the
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA, , , , ), so named since 1979, is one of the seven Departments of the Swiss government federal administration of Switzerland, and corresponds in its range of tasks to the ministry of foreign affa ...
under the leadership of
Ignazio Cassis Ignazio Daniele Giovanni Cassis (; born 13 April 1961) is a Swiss physician and politician who has been a List of members of the Swiss Federal Council, Member of the Swiss Federal Council since 1 November 2017. A member of FDP.The Liberals, Cas ...
made a controversial visit to the Mopani Copper Mines that also produce cobalt ores. The Swiss government had previously issued human rights guidelines for firms operating in the commodity sector, which is of strategic importance to both countries. The visit was heavily criticised by
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
and Swiss watchdog groups while the federal councilor defended his stance, pointing out the modernisation of production facilities, improved health care and better training for young workers.


Paradise Papers

On 5 November 2017, the
Paradise Papers The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper'' Süddeutsche Z ...
, a set of confidential
electronic documents An electronic document is a document that can be sent in non-physical means, such as telex, email, and the internet. Originally, any computer data were considered as something internal—the final data output was always on paper. However, the ...
relating to
offshore investment Offshore investment is the keeping of money in a jurisdiction other than one's country of residence. Offshore jurisdictions are used to pay less tax in many countries by large and small-scale investors. Poorly regulated offshore domiciles have ser ...
, revealed that Glencore loaned $45 million to Israeli billionaire
Dan Gertler Dan Gertler (; born 23 December 1973) is an Israeli billionaire businessman in natural resources and the founder and president of the DGI (Dan Gertler International) group of companies. Until 2022, his group had mining and oil interests in the D ...
in exchange for his help with officials of the
Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...
in negotiations over a
joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...
with state-owned
Gécamines La Générale des Carrières et des Mines (Gécamines) is a Congolese commodity trading and mining company headquartered in Lubumbashi, in the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is a state-controlled corporation founded i ...
at the Katanga copper mine, in which one of the board members was Glencore major shareholder Telis Mistakidis. Glencore, which had effectively taken over Katanga, agreed to vote for the joint venture. The loan document specifically provided that repayment would be owed if agreement was not reached within three months. Gertler and Glencore have denied wrongdoing. Appleby had worked for Glencore and its founder
Marc Rich Marc Rich (born Marcell David Reich; December 18, 1934 – June 26, 2013) was an international commodity, commodities Trader (finance), trader, financier, and businessman. He founded the commodities company Glencore, and was later indicted in the ...
on major projects in the past, even after his indictment in 1983. Rich was indicted in the United States on federal charges of
tax evasion Tax evasion or tax fraud is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to red ...
and making controversial oil deals with Iran during the
Iran hostage crisis The Iran hostage crisis () began on November 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, with 52 of them being held until January 20, 1981. Th ...
. He received a controversial
presidential pardon A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...
from
U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
on 20 January 2001, Clinton's last day in office. In 2024, it was reported that the Chilean tax authorities were initiating the process of recouping more than $1.5 billion in unpaid taxes from Glencore. The Australian branch of Glencore has been demonstrated to have carried out some $25 billion in cross-currency interest rate swaps, complex financial instruments the
Australian Taxation Office The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is an Australian statutory agency and the principal revenue collection body for the Australian Government. The ATO has responsibility for administering the Taxation in Australia, Australian federal taxation ...
suspects of being used to avoid paying taxes in Australia. Glencore is also a co-owner of large coal freighters fleet SwissMarine.


Reactions to U.S. sanctions

In April 2018, the company started to limit its exposure to
Oleg Deripaska Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska (; born 2 January 1968) is a Russian oligarch and billionaire. Deripaska began his career as a metals trader after the breakup of the Soviet Union. He used accumulated funds from trading to acquire stakes in the Sa ...
by canceling the plan to swap an 8.75 percent stake in aluminum producer United Co. Rusal for shares in another one of Deripaska's companies, London-listed
En+ Group EN or En or en may refer to: Businesses * Bouygues (stock symbol EN) * Island Rail Corridor, formerly known as the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway (reporting mark EN) * Euronews, a news television and internet channel Language and writing * N, 14t ...
Plc. The commodities trader also announced that Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg had resigned from Rusal's board. In March 2022, the company leadership strongly condemned the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
; it would "review business activities in the country including our equity stakes in En+ and
Rosneft PJSC Rosneft Oil Company ( stylized as ROSNEFT) is a Russian integrated energy company headquartered in Moscow. Rosneft specializes in the exploration, extraction, production, refining, transport, and sale of petroleum, natural gas, and pet ...
." Glencore owns a 10.55% stake in En+ Group International PJSC, the controlling shareholder of aluminum giant United Co. Rusal International, and less than 1% in Rosneft. The company also stated it had "no operational footprint in Russia". British news outlets, however, noted that Swiss-based Glencore, among other commodity companies, loaded cargoes of oil products onto tankers at Russian ports in mid-March 2022. While some oil companies such as
BP Plc BP p.l.c. (formerly The British Petroleum Company p.l.c. and BP Amoco p.l.c.; stylised in all lowercase) is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. It is one of the oil and gas "supermajors" and one of th ...
and
Shell Plc Shell plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational petroleum, oil and natural gas, gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and second ...
were pressured to halt Russian oil purchases, Glencore remained in the lucrative business for trading Russian crude.


Investigation by U.S. Department of Justice

On 3 July 2018, the company announced that it received a subpoena from the
U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equi ...
"to produce documents and other records with respect to compliance with the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) (, ''et seq.'') is a United States federal law that prohibits U.S. citizens and entities from Bribery, bribing foreign government officials to benefit their business interests. The FCPA is applic ...
and the United States money laundering statutes". The requested documents relate to the Glencore Group's business in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Venezuela from 2007 to present. In May 2018, Bloomberg reported that Britain's Serious Fraud Office may also open a bribery investigation into Glencore's dealing with
Dan Gertler Dan Gertler (; born 23 December 1973) is an Israeli billionaire businessman in natural resources and the founder and president of the DGI (Dan Gertler International) group of companies. Until 2022, his group had mining and oil interests in the D ...
and DRC President
Joseph Kabila Joseph Kabila Kabange ( , ; born 4 June 1971) is a Congolese politician and former military officer who served as the fourth President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2001 to 2019. He took office ten days after the assassination o ...
. On 24 May 2022, Glencore pleaded guilty to multiple counts of bribery and agreed to pay penalties of about $1.5 billion.


''International Rights Advocates v. Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Tesla''

The International Rights Advocates groups filed a lawsuit, '' International Rights Advocates v. Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Tesla'', on 15 December 2019 against
Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
,
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
,
Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...
, and
Tesla Tesla most commonly refers to: * Nikola Tesla (1856–1943), a Serbian-American electrical engineer and inventor * Tesla, Inc., an American electric vehicle and clean energy company, formerly Tesla Motors, Inc. * Tesla (unit) (symbol: T), the SI-d ...
that names Glencore. The lawsuit claims that the named companies benefited from and aided and abetted child labor in mining companies' cobalt operations. It is argued that Glencore-owned mines sold cobalt to
Umicore Umicore N.V., known as ''Union Minière'' before 2001, is a Belgian-French multinational materials technology company headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. It was formed in 1989 by the merger of four companies in the mining and smelting industri ...
, which then sold the cobalt to be used in lithium batteries in Apple, Microsoft, Dell, and Tesla products. Glencore released a statement through a spokesperson noting the allegations and stating that " lencoredoes not tolerate any form of child, forced, or compulsory labour." The case was dismissed, and International Rights Advocates appealed in 2022.


U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission investigation

In April 2019 the U.S.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US government created in 1974 that regulates the U.S. derivatives markets, which includes futures contract, fut ...
notified the company of an investigation into whether the company violated parts of the Commodity Exchange Act, or regulations concerning corrupt practices related to commodities. In May 2022, Glencore pled guilty to charges of corrupt dealings with foreign governments, and agreed to pay a $1.8 billion fine. The corrupt practices occurred from 2007 to 2018, and included actions to "make and conceal corrupt payments and bribes through intermediaries for the benefit of foreign officials across multiple countries". In August 2020, Glencore suspended its dividend payments to investors, saying it will instead prioritise paying down its debt in the immediate term. It was the first major mining company to shelve its dividend owing to the business impacts of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.


Long-term supply contract with Tesla

In June 2020, it was reported that
Tesla Motors Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, it designs, manufactures and sells battery electric vehicles (BEVs), stationary battery energy storage devices from hom ...
partnered with Glencore for the future supply of cobalt in their lithium-ion batteries. Just a year earlier,
BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...
did the same with Glencore and the Bou Azzer mine in
Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...
. Initially Tesla wanted to eliminate the controversial metal from its battery formula, but then the company decided for its continued use, boosting cobalt prospects significantly, according to industry experts.


UK SFO charges and continued investigations

In 2022, Glencore's UK subsidiary twice pleaded guilty to corruption charges levelled by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). These charges accused Glencore of paying over of bribes between 2011 and 2016 to officials in Africa to "secure access to oil and make illicit profit". On May 24, Glencore Energy UK Limited indicated in court that it would plead guilty to five counts of bribery and two counts of failure to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act 2010. The SFO found that over in bribes were paid in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and South Sudan between 2011 and 2016 for preferential access to oil, and accused Glencore of "profit-driven bribery and corruption". Glencore executives acknowledged the "unacceptable practices" and "misconduct identified in these investigations", but argued that the company had been making efforts to improve its ethics and compliance program since before it knew of the US DOJ investigation. The company predicted that fines for the seven corruption charges would not exceed the it set aside in 2021 for resolving the investigations undertaken by various national authorities. On June 21, a British subsidiary of Glencore again pleaded guilty to seven counts of bribery. These charges pertained to oil operations in Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast and South Sudan between 2012 and 2016. The SFO found that over in bribes were paid for officials to "perform their functions improperly". Glencore again predicted that fines would not exceed the it had previously set aside. Glencore faces continued investigations from the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland and the Dutch Public Prosecution Service. It is possible that these continued investigations may be linked to
Vitol Vitol (Pronounced: Vee-Tol) is a Swiss-based Dutch multinational energy and commodity trading company that was founded in Rotterdam in 1966 by Henk Viëtor and Jacques Detiger. Though trading, logistics, and distribution are at the core of its b ...
, a Swiss-based Dutch commodity trading company and Glencore's largest competitor that is often claimed to be equal or greater in size to Glencore and has been linked to similar legal challenges in resource-rich countries.


Human rights abuse accusations

Since 2010 there were over 70 human rights abuse accusations against Glencore documented by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.


Lobbying

On 6 March 2019, ''The Guardian Australia'' accused Glencore, aided by consulting firm CT Group, of engaging in a large-scale, globally coordinated lobbying campaign to promote coal use "by undermining environmental activists, influencing politicians and spreading sophisticated pro-coal messaging on social media." The campaign was started in 2017 and ran until 2019, when it was shut down in February, according to Glencore.


Australian water supply damage

In November 2023, Glencore controversially announced a plan to inject up to 110,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year into the Australian groundwater basic. Hydrogeologist Ned Hamer stated that the carbon dioxide would increase the acidity of the water to the extent that it would dissolve the rock, releasing heavy metals into the water and making it unusable as a water source for farmers and people living in the Australian outback.


Board of directors

As of December 2023: * Kalidas Madhavpeddi (non-executive chairman) *
Gary Nagle Gary Nagle (born 1975) is a South African business executive, and the CEO of Glencore. Nagle earned degrees in commerce and accounting from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He qualified as a chartered accountant in South Afr ...
(CEO) * Peter Coates (non-executive director) *
Martin Gilbert Sir Martin John Gilbert (25 October 1936 – 3 February 2015) was a British historian and honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He was the author of 88 books, including works on Winston Churchill, the 20th century, and Jewish history inc ...
(non-executive director) * Liz Hewitt (non-executive director) *
Gill Marcus Gill Marcus (born 10 August 1949) is a South African banker and politician who served as Governor of the South African Reserve Bank from 2009 to 2014. She was the first and only woman and the ninth person to hold the position. Life and career ...
(non-executive director) * Patrice Merrin (non-executive director) * Cynthia Carroll (non-executive director) * David Wormsley (non-executive director) * Gregory Zientek ( non-executive director )


Notes


References


Further reading

*


External links

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