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.

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

Mining giants Rio Tinto and Glencore reportedly discussed a merger last year. The two companies held discussions as late as October last year, but they didn’t progress further, as first reported by the Financial Times.