Glencore

Updated April 2021

The Swiss mining giant Glencore plc., formerly known as Marc Rich & Co., describes itself as a vertically-integrated natural resource company, meaning that it is involved at every stage of the supply chain of its products, from extraction and processing through to marketing and trading. Its sprawling operations include metals – particularly copper, nickel and cobalt – as well as coal, oil, gas, and agricultural products. It has operations in over 35 countries that it manages through a network of subsidiaries, and is one of the world’s largest mining companies, valued at $42.46 billion at the end of 2020. Glencore has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2011. 

Glencore has always taken pains to shroud its operations in secrecy, and for good reason: the details that have been painstakingly brought to light by community activists and environmental justice campaigners paint a damning picture. From the bribery scandals in the DRC, the murder of anti-mining activists in the Philippines, the poisoning of water supplies in Peru, and the abuse of workers in its mines the world over, we can see that whilst Glencore’s operations might be diverse, the common thread that ties them together is an exploitative business model based on crossing ethical lines in the pursuit of ever greater profits. Below is a brief overview of Glencore’s history and the stories of those who have struggled against it. For a more detailed account, see our alternative corporate timeline.

Glencore – a brief history

Glencore began in 1974, when founder Marc Rich resigned from his position at the commodity traders Philipp Brothers to form Marc Rich and Co. The firm evaded international sanctions to make lucrative trades with pariah states, particularly apartheid-era South Africa, with whom Rich made his “most important and most profitable” deals ever. This came at a cost. In 1983 Rich was charged with criminal fraud, wire fraud, racketeering, and tax evasion, and fled the US for Switzerland.

Initially, the company was purely a commodities trader, particularly crude oil, metals, and agricultural products. In 1987, however, Marc Rich and Co. started to acquire firms that were involved in extraction and production, beginning with a U.S aluminium smelter and then a Peruvian lead and zinc mine. These acquisitions continued apace as Marc Rich and Co. expanded. Of particular note is the purchase of Mopani, a Zambian copper mine, in 2000, and purchase of a stake in Prodeco – a Colombian coal mine – in 1995.

The 1990s and 2000s were a time of internal turmoil at the company. Marc Rich was forced out by the management board in 1993, and the firm promptly changed its name to ‘Glencore’ to bury any lingering association with its controversial founder. It underwent a public listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2011, marking a dramatic departure in strategy, but continued to expand aggressively. In 2013, merger talks with longtime business partner and subsidiary Xstrata went sour after more than a year of negotiations, and morphed into a hostile takeover. Glencore traded under the new name of Glencore Xstrata for a while, and continued to consolidate its position as a top mining giant. The company reached the position it is in today off the back of violent suppression of anti-mining organising, polluting of vital water supplies, and participation in state-level bribery and corruption. Communities around the world are struggling against Glencore and its deadly operations: here are some of their stories.  

Funding violence against anti-mining activists

In the Philippines and Colombia, there are credible allegations that Glencore and its subsidiaries have funded the violent repression of social movements who oppose its mining projects. In the Philippines for example, Sagittarius Mines Inc – which at the time was majority owned by Xsrata – bought the rights to develop a copper-gold mine within the land of the B’laan, one of the indigenous community of Southern Mindanao. The B’laan organised against the occupation of their land and in response, Xstrata are alleged to have created and bankrolled a secret paramilitary unit that terrorised the community, murdering tribal leaders and their families for opposing the mine. Similar allegations have been levelled against the Colombian mining group Prodeco, which is wholly owned by Glencore. Former Prodeco staff and paramilitary commanders have attested that Prodeco funded and collaborated with paramilitary death squads that assassinated those who lay in the path of the mine’s expansion.   

In Peru, in response to a strike called by mineworkers, an Xstrata director asked the police to take “direct, proactive and strong approach” against striking workers, who he described as “sons of whores.” The police brutally attacked the miners, and have been accused of killing two and torturing many more. Xstrata allegedly equipped riot police with rubber bullets and tear gas, and stationed them in barracks in their mine. 

Poisoning vital water supplies

Glencore’s mines have had devastating impacts on their surrounding environments, with deadly consequences for those who live nearby. Entire rivers have been diverted to fuel Glencore’s mines, even in areas where water is scarce, and the remaining water supply is often so contaminated with lead and other heavy metals that it is unfit to support life.

 In Cerro de Pasco, Peru, for example, waste from Glencore’s Volcan mine has left rivers contaminated with 160 times the maximum permissible level of lead. 78% of children in the city show symptoms of heavy metal poisoning. At Glencore’s Mopani mine, in Zambia, a malfunctioning pump discharged so much sulfuric acid into the water supply of neighbouring villages that over 1,000 residents were treated with severe vomiting, diarrhoea, and abdominal pains. Communities surrounding the Cerrejón mine, in northern Colombia, are currently fighting against a similar fate, and are campaigning for the reinstatement of the vital Arroyo Bruno river that has been diverted to supply the mine. 

Glencore holds the dubious honour of being the first mining company to be charged with environmental contamination by a Latin American court. Xstrata vice-president Julian Rooney was charged in 2008 for environmental crimes relating to water contamination at the Alumbrera mine, Peru, and has had his assets seized whilst he awaits trial.

Bribery and corruption

The Paradise Papers leak, in 2017, shone a light onto some of the darkest secrets of mining giants, bringing to public attention the very things they had tried their hardest to keep hidden. Glencore was deeply implicated in this; the leaked documents confirmed Global Witness’s allegations that Glencore was involved in bribery and corruption in the DRC.

In 2008, Glencore subsidiary Katanga Mining was worried about the growing desire of the DRC state to retain some of the wealth from its mineral resources. Talks between Katanga and state-owned mining company Gécamines had stalled. So, Glencore co-directors and the chief officers of Katanga met with the disgraced diamond magnate Dan Gertler, and paid him $45m to shut down Gécamines’ demands and secure a favourable contract for Glencore. Gertler delivered, and Glencore’s payment reduced by three quarters, ending up at well below market rate. Gertler was extremely close to powerful members of the administration at the time, and had been criticised by the UN for an arms deal he made with the Congolese army during the brutal civil war. 

The legal ramifications from these deals is still ongoing. The Ontario Securities Commission – the regulator for the Toronto Stock Exchange – fined Katanga CAD$30m in 2018, and forced board members to step down, including the head of Glencore’s copper operations, Aristotelis Mistakidis. The U.S Department of Justice has since launched its own corruption probe, the UK Serious Fraud Office is currently carrying out a bribery investigation, and the Swiss Attorney General has launched a criminal investigation. 

For more detail on those events and the ruinous history of Glencore’s operations, see the timeline below. You can download a PDF of the timeline here.