Rio Tinto Group and Glencore have held early stage talks about combining their businesses to create a behemoth to rival longstanding industry titan BHP Group. The discussions took place as recently as late last year but are not currently active,

Glencore approached Rio Tinto late last year about combining the two big copper producers but the discussions are no longer active, a person familiar with the matter said. The talks between Rio, the world's No.

Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) -2.3% in Thursday's trading following a Bloomberg report that the company has been discussing a potential business combination with Glencore (OTCPK:GLCNF) (OTCPK:GLNCY), in what could result in the mining industry's largest-ever deal and have the potential to reshape the global mining landscape.

Rio Tinto, and Glencore Plc have been discussing combining their businesses, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Both the firms, which are among the world's largest iron ore miners,