Baby Glencore: "Trafigura to invest around $400m in Spanish mine"

It's a big baby, over $125 Billion in revenues, more below the jump.
From Reuters via Mineweb:

The company plans to spend over $390.45 million into a newly-acquired copper, zinc and lead mine in Spain over a period of two years.

GENEVA (Reuters)  - 
Trafigura, the world's third biggest trader in raw materials, said it planned to plough over 300 million euros ($390.45 million) into a newly-acquired copper, zinc and lead mine in Spain over two years.

Privately-held commodity trading firms like Trafigura have adopted a strategy similar to listed rival Glencore and stepped up purchases of oil and mining assets to extend control over supply chains.

Trafigura, the world's second largest independent trader of non-steel related ore, said earlier this month that the mine formed part of a broader strategy to create a standalone, mid-sized and diversified mining company....MORE

Last week the Financial Times was reporting on the disclosure that accompanied Trafigura's bond offering:

Trafigura raises $500m with perpetual bond

Trafigura, one of the world’s largest commodities trading houses, has launched its first perpetual bond, tapping the public capital market in a further sign of change in the way trading titans finance themselves.

The trading house, which last year moved its incorporation from Geneva to Singapore, raised $500m with its bond, up from an initial target of $300m. The note, which was five times subscribed, will yield a 7.65 per cent coupon.

Trafigura is the world’s second-largest independent metals trader after Glencore, and the third-largest oil trader behind Vitol and Glencore.

The bond issue is the latest sign that the traditionally employee-owned commodity trading industry is opening up to new sources of capital, as European banks scale back their lending activities in the sector just as traders need more credit.

Louis Dreyfus Commodities, one of the world’s top food commodities traders, last September tapped the public capital markets for the first time in its 160-year history, raising $350m in a perpetual bond....MORE

And:
Trafigura staff net $1.6bn in share deals

Trafigura, one of the world’s top commodities trading houses, has handed about $1.6bn to its senior employees in the past three years by buying back their shares, according to financial statements revealed in a bond prospectus.

The scale of the buybacks highlights the riches that have accrued to a relatively small elite of traders as a result of the boom in commodity prices unleashed by the industrialisation and urbanisation of China and other emerging countries since 2000....MORE

CEO  Claude Dauphin is a very heavy hitter.