Key Chinese Rio Tinto shareholder backs Glencore bid to gain copper access

Bloomberg News | January 19, 2026 | 7:36 am Markets Top Companies Asia Australia China Copper

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Image courtesy of Rio Tinto.

Aluminum Corp. of China, one of the largest shareholders in Rio Tinto Group, is likely to support the mining giant’s potential acquisition of rival Glencore Plc, a combination that would give the Chinese company increased exposure to copper, the industry’s most coveted metal.

Any final approval would require a go-ahead from the Chinese government, but Chinalco, as the company is known, is already in talks with authorities and is expected to back the ambitious tie-up, according to people familiar with the matter. They asked not to be named as the discussions are not public.

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Rio and Glencore confirmed earlier this month that they were in tie-up talks, but the two miners have yet to provide details on the structure of a deal to create the world’s largest mining company. Under UK Takeover Panel rules, Rio has until Feb. 5 to firm up its interest or walk away. When the deal was last seriously discussed in late 2024, the talks foundered over Rio’s unwillingness to pay a big premium.

Chinalco, which has had a significant stake in Rio for almost two decades, will agree to a smaller stake in a larger entity if talks progress, the people said, though it could ask for some form of redress from Rio. They did not specify what that could include.

Chinalco currently holds 14.55% of Rio’s London-listed shares, according to Bloomberg data, closing in on the 14.99% holding threshold agreed with Australia at the time of its original investment.

Rio and Chinalco declined to comment. Glencore and China’s State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission did not have an immediate response to Bloomberg queries.

As the world’s top consumer of almost all metals, China’s tacit agreement is vital to any deal in the mining industry — even when there is no significant direct shareholding. Once details are agreed, Beijing’s antitrust regulators will be certain to cast a critical eye over the combination.

Glencore’s takeover of Xstrata Plc, agreed in 2012, was eventually approved by China, but with conditions that included the sale of a Peruvian copper mine.