Our history
Australia has been an important part of the Glencore business for nearly 30 years.
Our 16,820 employees and contractors at Glencore Australia work together in a mining, metals processing, marketing and distribution network across the country.
Following our initial investments in nickel and coal, we have steadily grown our business to become one of Australia’s largest producers of coal and critical minerals, including cobalt, zinc, lead, nickel, copper and silver.
We own and operate 16 active mines and seven metals processing facilities including concentrators, smelters and refineries.
Read on to learn about the history that shaped who we are today.
Mount Isa Mines circa 1935
Mt Owen/Glendell Operations in New South Wales
Environment rehabilitation monitoring at Mt Owen in New South Wales
McArthur River open cut mine situated in the Gulf Region of the Northern Territory
Ulan Coal Operations in the western coalfields of New South Wales
Glencore Port Operations in Townsville
Murrin Murrin Operations located in the north-eastern goldfields region of Western Australia
Our presence in Australia began in 1997 with an investment in the Murrin Murrin Joint Venture, a nickel and cobalt mine in Western Australia. Over the following years, we grew our interest in the operations, becoming the sole owner in November 2011.
Nickel and cobalt, along with copper, are significant commodities for Glencore and will play a key role in the global transition to a low carbon economy.
We continue to mine these minerals at Murrin Murrin and export them out of Kwinana, south of Perth.
Find out more about our nickel cobalt resource on the Murrin Murrin Operations website.
Glencore first invested in the Australian coal industry in the mid-1990s and went on to acquire the Cumnock and Mt Owen mines.
We have been a significant investor in the Australian coal industry since this time and today operate 13 active coal mines across New South Wales and Queensland.
By 2002, we were rapidly expanding our operations in Australia across metals and minerals, energy products (including coal) and agriculture. The timeline below outlines our mining investments since 1998. This demonstrates our consistent investments – buying, building and expanding mining operations – throughout numerous commodity cycles over the past three decades.
Xstrata plc was created through an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in 2002, acquiring Glencore’s Australian and South African coal assets and becoming the world’s largest exporter of thermal coal.
Over the next decade, Xstrata grew to become one of the largest diversified mining companies in the world, with a significant footprint in Australia. This included coal, copper and zinc operations in Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory.
Glencore remained a significant and active shareholder of Xstrata, and in 2013 we acquired Xstrata.
In 2003, Xstrata doubled in size with the $2.9 billion takeover of Australian copper, coal, zinc and lead mining and processing company, MIM Holdings Limited.
The acquisition included:
- Mount Isa Mines in Mount Isa, North Queensland
- Ernest Henry Mining copper-gold deposit near Cloncurry, North Queensland
- McArthur River Mine zinc-lead resource in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory
- Bowen Coke Works
- Townsville Port Operations
- Four Queensland coal mines.
We continued to develop our world-class copper and zinc-lead resources at Mount Isa and Ernest Henry mines, and our operations at the Port of Townsville as the export gateway for our integrated North Queensland supply chain.
Every mine operation has a finite life. We put significant focus on our mine rehabilitation efforts, in consultation with local communities.
Since 2010, our Australian coal operations have rehabilitated more than 20,000 hectares of mined land to an approved post-mining land use such as self-sustaining native ecosystems, agricultural use, or other suitable purposes.
Government and public recognition
Our Newlands mine complex was the first in central Queensland’s Bowen Basin to earn state government certification for successful rehabilitation of previously mined land while coal operations continued.
As of 1 July 2025, eight of our Australian coal operations have received state government certification for areas of rehabilitation. These include Baal Bone, Ulan, Westside and Liddell in New South Wales and Collinsville, Newlands, Oaky Creek and Rolleston in Queensland.
Our work rebuilding Ravensworth State Forest at Mt Owen was recognised internationally.
Glencore Agriculture began operations in Australia in 2003. In 2012, we acquired Viterra’s global storage and handling business, which included multiple storage sites across south-eastern Australia and six grain export ports in South Australia.
Viterra remains one of the largest buyers of grain, oilseeds, pulses, sorghum and cotton direct from Australian growers.
In 2016, Glencore sold a 50.01% stake of its agriculture business to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation.
In July 2025, Bunge acquired Viterra to create a premier global agribusiness solutions company for food, feed and fuel. Glencore has a 16.4% non-operational stake in the enlarged company.
Our business has grown steadily through acquisition, including Xstrata's mining business in 2013 and various individual coal operations.
We hold significant interests in a range of commodity industries across all mainland states and the Northern Territory.
Gateway to world markets
Within many of our Australian operations, we:
- explore and originate the commodity
- produce it
- process and refine it
- market and blend it
- handle, store and transport it to our customers around the world.
We are proud of the major contribution we have made, and continue to make, in Australia.
We have made significant investments throughout numerous commodity price cycles, including buying and building mines.
In the process, we have created and maintained high levels of employment for two generations of Australians, while supporting thousands of local and regional businesses, and generating tax and royalty revenues for federal and state governments.
In 2025 Glencore operations made a direct socio-economic contribution of $19.31 billion to local, regional, state and national economies in Australia. Read more on Our contribution webpage.