London, March 13, 2026, 14:00 GMT
Rio Tinto shares slipped in London on Friday, trading around 6,800 pence by 10:50 GMT and down roughly 0.7%, as investors weighed fresh signs Glencore wants back into merger talks against a shutdown at Rio’s Kennecott copper mine after a worker died. 1
The move matters now because Rio’s stock is back to trading on two stories at once: deal hope and operating risk. Glencore’s camp says higher coal prices have improved its hand, but the UK Takeover Code — the rulebook that forces a six-month pause after failed talks — means Rio cannot reopen formal negotiations until August. 2
Since Jan. 7, coal prices and Glencore’s shares have climbed 26%, while Rio’s shares have risen 9%, and Glencore now sees itself worth about 35% of any combined group, up from 31.5%, according to three investors who met company leaders in Australia this week. Rio and Glencore declined to comment on those meetings. 2
Rio has already signaled it was not willing to stretch. After the talks collapsed last month, Chief Executive Simon Trott said, “Ultimately we formed the view that we couldn’t stand up a value case, and that’s where it stands.” A combination would have created the world’s biggest miner, ahead of BHP. 2
Kennecott is the other pressure point. Rio said all surface and underground mining operations at the Utah site were suspended after a contractor died on Thursday, and Trott said, “The safety of our people comes before everything else.” Reuters said the mine is one of the world’s top copper producers. 3
The shutdown lands badly because Rio has been trying to broaden the story beyond iron ore. This week it teamed up with Prysmian on a trial to make low-carbon aluminium cables for data centres, and Brazil’s antitrust watchdog cleared Rio and Chinalco’s purchase of a controlling stake in aluminium producer CBA without restrictions. 4
Investors were wary of a Glencore tie-up from the start, largely because of coal and environmental, social and governance, or ESG, objections. RBC analyst Kaan Peker said in January that bringing coal back would be “unacceptable” to a significant share of Rio holders in Europe; John Ayoub at Wilson Asset Management said coal would have to be divested to win Australian support, while Allan Gray’s Tim Hillier warned Rio could overpay. 5
But a quick lift in the share price still looks hard. Any revived Glencore deal would need shareholder, regulatory and government approvals, while five Australian funds had already written to Rio’s board in January raising governance concerns tied to Glencore’s past corruption probes, and Rio has given no timetable for restarting Kennecott. 2
For now, investors seem to want hard evidence, not another round of merger talk. Friday’s price action suggested mine news and commodity math were carrying more weight than takeover talk alone. 1
