Glencore Xstrata linked to ‘cut price’ mine deal

This article was amended on 28 March 2014 to include Fleurette Group’s stated acquisition price
Dan Gertler has amassed an empire worth almost
Dan Gertler has amassed an empire worth almost
SIMON DAWSON/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

Glencore Xstrata helped to orchestrate the secret cut-price purchase of a stake in one of the world’s highest-grade copper mines from Africa’s poorest country.

A 50 per cent-owned Glencore subsidiary recommended that the Democratic Republic of Congo’s state mining company sold its 20 per cent stake in the Mutanda mine, which Glencore operates and part-owns, to a company linked to Dan Gertler for $120 million (£73 million) in March 2011.

Weeks later Glencore’s own flotation prospectus valued the mine at more than $3 billion, suggesting that Glencore’s subsidiary recommended that the stake was sold at a fifth of what Glencore believed it was worth. Including potential royalties attached to the state mining company’s shares, the sale was worth a seventh of the stake’s true value,