Jan 8 (Reuters) - Glencore said on Thursday it was in early talks to be acquired by Rio Tinto,, a combination that would create the world's largest mining company and have major implications for the global copper sector.

Glencore had approached Rio Tinto in 2024 about combining the two big copper producers but the discussions were short-lived.

Here are the top 10 copper mines in the world:

Rank Mine Location 2024 Controlling Companies

Output

1 Escondida Chile 1,125,300 BHP Group, Rio Tinto,

tonnes Mitsubishi, JX Advanced

Metals

2 Grasberg Indonesia 816,466 PT Mineral Industri

tonnes Indonesia,

Freeport-McMoRan

3 Collahuasi Chile 466,400 Glencore , Anglo

tonnes American and Mitsui

4 Tenke Democrati 450,000 CMOC, Gecamines

Fungurume c tonnes

Republic

of the

Congo

5 Cerro Peru 447,000 Freeport-McMoRan,

Verde tonnes Buenaventura , Sumitomo

6 Kamoa-Kaku Democrati 437,061 Ivanhoe Mines, Zijin

la c tonnes Mining, Democratic

Republic Republic of the Congo,

of the Crystal River Global

Congo

7 Buenavista Mexico 432,993 Southern Copper

tonnes

8 Antamina Peru 426,900 Glencore, BHP Group ,

tonnes Teck Resources,

Mitsubishi

9 Morenci USA 362,000 Freeport-McMoRan,

tonnes Sumitomo

10 El Chile 356,400 Codelco

Teniente tonnes

(SOURCES: COMPANY WEBSITES, FILINGS, ANNUAL REPORTS)

(Reporting by Anushree Mukherjee, Sumit Saha, Vallari Srivastava and Tanay Dhumal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Tasim Zahid)