Glencore Tightens Grip on Congo Mining Unit

(Bloomberg) -- Glencore Plc tightened its grip on Katanga Mining Ltd. by appointing new executives and entering a management services contract to run its troubled Congo copper and cobalt unit.

The head of the commodity trader’s African copper business, Danny Callow, has been made chief executive officer of Katanga, while Glencore’s head of strategy Paul Smith was appointed chief financial officer of the unit.

Key Insights

• Glencore announced its plan to take greater control of Katanga last month when Canada’s Ontario Securities Commission fined and banned executives from the company, including billionaire former head of copper trading Aristotelis Mistakidis, after the unit misstated how much copper and cobalt it mined.
• The changes come as Glencore faces intense scrutiny in the Congo, where it owns copper mines and is the world’s biggest cobalt miner. The No. 1 commodity trader is also being probed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
• Katanga, which is 86 percent owned by Glencore and has its own listing in Canada, said late Thursday that the management agreement will help it improve governance, compliance and operations.

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Biesheuvel in London at tbiesheuvel@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net, Dylan Griffiths, Nicholas Larkin

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