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From: The Wall Street Journal May 03, 2013.
Ivan Glasenberg, the South African/Swiss/Australian citizen, left no doubt that the new company will retain all of the old Glencore's hard-charging DNA. He explained why he sees no difference between politically volatile nations that might seize assets and stable democracies that raise taxes. Glasenberg said he has visited every major Xstrata operation, discovered a duplication of key tasks and expects to fire a "big amount" of Xstrata middle managers. Glasenberg declined to give a figure for the layoffs. "It's going to be big," he said. Glasenberg owns 8 per cent of the new, combined company with a notional value of $92 billion, making his worth $7.6 billion and maintaining his second-place rank on Forbes list of Australia’s richest. With coal, copper, zinc and nickel operations in Australia and 40 other countries around the world, Glencore will rival the world’s two biggest miners, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.
He said that in analysing where to buy mines, he doesn't favour wealthier, more established mining locales such as Australia and Canada over emerging economies such as the Democratic Republic of Congo or Colombia. "They may be more risky countries, but they're giving me big returns," he said. "These big monster assets [such as those in Australia and Brazil] are not giving me the big returns because they've had big cost overruns." Australia imposing a mining tax in 2010 is akin to an "expropriation," he said, a risk as bad as anything that might happen in the Congo. "Once governments change the rules on you, whether it's expropriations, taxes, royalties, whatever it is, they're sucking the profits off you," he said. "I don't treat any of them different. They're all the same. They're taking the money off you in one form or another."
Don't know much about Glencore? Never heard of Marc Rich? Listen to the Hungry Beast.
So much for the prospect of a Mining Resource tax. It appears that Ivan thinks that Australian minerals belong to him.
Ivan Glasenberg, the South African/Swiss/Australian citizen, left no doubt that the new company will retain all of the old Glencore's hard-charging DNA. He explained why he sees no difference between politically volatile nations that might seize assets and stable democracies that raise taxes. Glasenberg said he has visited every major Xstrata operation, discovered a duplication of key tasks and expects to fire a "big amount" of Xstrata middle managers. Glasenberg declined to give a figure for the layoffs. "It's going to be big," he said. Glasenberg owns 8 per cent of the new, combined company with a notional value of $92 billion, making his worth $7.6 billion and maintaining his second-place rank on Forbes list of Australia’s richest. With coal, copper, zinc and nickel operations in Australia and 40 other countries around the world, Glencore will rival the world’s two biggest miners, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.
He said that in analysing where to buy mines, he doesn't favour wealthier, more established mining locales such as Australia and Canada over emerging economies such as the Democratic Republic of Congo or Colombia. "They may be more risky countries, but they're giving me big returns," he said. "These big monster assets [such as those in Australia and Brazil] are not giving me the big returns because they've had big cost overruns." Australia imposing a mining tax in 2010 is akin to an "expropriation," he said, a risk as bad as anything that might happen in the Congo. "Once governments change the rules on you, whether it's expropriations, taxes, royalties, whatever it is, they're sucking the profits off you," he said. "I don't treat any of them different. They're all the same. They're taking the money off you in one form or another."
Don't know much about Glencore? Never heard of Marc Rich? Listen to the Hungry Beast.
So much for the prospect of a Mining Resource tax. It appears that Ivan thinks that Australian minerals belong to him.