More consolidation is needed, he told a private conference hosted by Goldman Sachs at LME Week. As it happened, Jakob Stausholm, the boss of rival mining company Rio Tinto, was also speaking at the event. Around the same time, Glencore and Rio held tentative talks about combining part or all of their business to create a $160bn mining behemoth.

Glencore approached Rio Tinto late last year about combining the two big copper producers but the discussions are no longer active, a person familiar with the matter said. The talks between Rio, the world's No.

A deal aimed at capturing a bigger slice of the metals market, the proposed $160 billion merger of Rio Tinto a Glencore appears doomed to fail