Glencore has appointed Peter Freyberg to the newly created role of head of industrial mining, the global trader and miner said on Monday, while its head of copper marketing Telis Mistakidis is to retire at the end of the year.
The London-listed miner said billionaire Mistakidis, who owns a 3.2 per cent stake in the company, will be replaced by Nico Paraskevas.
Shares in London jumped 4.4 per cent on Monday, mostly in line with the wider mining index as metal prices rose.
Glencore was ordered by the US department of justice in July to hand over documents about its business in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Venezuela and Nigeria as part of a corruption probe.
Long-time chief executive Ivan Glasenberg has said he wishes to retire by the time he turns 65.
“The management has been here a long time since the IPO . . . there comes a time where the younger generation needs to take over,” the 61-year-old Glasenberg told analysts on a call.
He added that there could be more management changes in the next few years and that each department was training successors.
Jason Kluk and Ruan Van Schalkwyk are to be appointed as joint heads of ferroalloys marketing.
Freyberg was previously head of the company's coal assets and will be replaced in that role by Gary Nagle, Glencore said in an update to investors.
The company, which has shed about 25 per cent of its market value this year, mines copper and cobalt in Congo and has traded oil in Venezuela and Nigeria.
Glencore narrowed the 2018 operating earnings forecast range for its trading division, and pointed to weakness in its alumina and cobalt businesses.
It said full-year marketing adjusted earnings before interest and tax would be between $2.6 billion and $2.8 billion at the unit, compared with its previous forecast of within the top half of a $2.2-$3.2 billion range.
In production, copper output in 2019 is projected to reach 1.540 million tonnes from an expected 1.465 million this year. Cobalt output next year is expected to total 57,000 tonnes from a target of 39,000 tonnes in 2018.
In Congo, Glencore has this year seen taxes and royalties hiked under a new mining code which also removed a stability agreement.
The company was paying higher royalties “under duress” and would “look at any arbitration route . . . if it becomes unsustainable for us”, Glasenberg said. – Reuters
