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Glencore had preliminary discussions on the sale of its copper and cobalt mines of several billion dollars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in what would be a significant change in strategy by the largest Western investor in the African country.
The FTSE 100 group rejected last month an unsolicited offer for the mines of a potential buyer in the Middle East because the offer was too low, according to people familiar with the problem.
The company would plan to sell part or all of its Congolese assets at the right price, according to several people familiar with the issue.
Some people added that the company had not started an official sales process and it was possible that no agreement was concluded.
Glencore Has the Mutanda Copper-Cobalt mine and a 75% stake in the Kamoto Copper Company, in which Congolese state minors Gécamines also have a participation. RBC analysts are worth mines at $ 6.8 billion.
Mines were a key element in the Glencore field to Western cars to be their choice of choice for a series of electric vehicles.
The world rush for copper, a red metal used in the wiring, cables and electric vehicles, has triggered a wave of mergers and acquisition activity among the main minors.
However, Congolese mines have been much less profitable than other Glencore copper assets – generating only $ 195 million in 2023 on income of 2.4 billion dollars – due to operational losses and low prices cobalt.
Last February, Glencore took a deficiency before $ 1 billion in Congolese copper mines due to poor market conditions of the cobalt and the settlement of a tax dispute.
Glencore said in a statement: “At the end of last year, Glencore received an unsolicited approach concerning its operations in Dr. Congo. The approach was rejected. Glencore has not hired any bank or advisers and does not run a sales process for its operations in Dr. Congo. »»
In recent weeks, Glencore has kept informal discussions separately with potential buyers on the future of his assets in Kazakhstan, according to people familiar with talks.
Glencore abandoned a sales process last year for Kazzinc, a large producer of zinc, lead and gold in which he holds a participation of 70%. RBC estimates the value of participation at $ 5.1 billion.
Sales would potentially be the biggest glencore provisions since CEO Gary Nagle took the bar in 2021.
Glencore refused to comment on the potential elimination of assets in Kazakhstan.
His departure from Dr. Congo would be an important setback to the country’s attempts to court Western investment to reduce dependence on China. Glencore is the only large non -Chinese foreign investor in the country’s mines in addition to the Eurasian Resources group based in Kazakhstan.
The Congolese Glencore mines produced 225,000 tonnes of copper and 35,000 tonnes of cobalt last year, making the group the second largest cobalt producer in the world.
Any potential sale would still be complicated by the fact that Glencore pays royalties on the production of mines to the Israeli businessman Dan Gertler, who is under American sanctions.
Glencore is one of the largest raw material traders in the world and also has a large mining portfolio. It is the sixth world producer of copper and the best Western producer of thermal coal.
Last year, Glencore had brief melts with the Anglo-Australian group Rio Tinto, and the previous year, he made a hostile offer of $ 23 billion to acquire Teck Resources of Canada, which was postponed .
The company should report its annual results on Wednesday.
