Glencore’s penchant for risk has long been mining industry lore, but the company is quickly expanding into a part of the world that would have been improbable just a few years ago: Minnesota.
The Swiss-based commodity trader took majority control last June of PolyMet Mining, which is developing a mine in the Midwest state near the Canadian border estimated to hold a century’s worth of copper and nickel, critical to the development of electric vehicles.