Glencore CEO: Open To Looking At Iron Ore Opportunities

Glencore International PLC (GLEN.LN) will continue to grow its presence in iron ore, a key steelmaking raw ingredient, via further marketing opportunities and is open to looking at investment opportunities as well, the company's Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg said Thursday.

"We will continue to grow [our iron ore business via] marketing opportunities," Ivan Glasenberg told reporters in a conference call. He added that if a buying opportunity "comes around in iron ore, we will look at that."

Australian iron ore miner Mount Gibson Iron Ltd. (MGX.AU) entered into an agreement with Glencore last week to sell 48% of the ore from its planned Extension Hill mine to the Swiss-based commodities giant.

Mount Gibson, which mines around 6.3 million metric tons of higher-grade hematite iron ore from its existing mines at Koolan Island and Tallering Peak in Western Australia state, said it would base pricing on market-based prices benchmarked to indexes issued by commodities service Platts.

Glasenberg said the company has been getting more involved in the iron ore market because its has become a more spot-based tradeable commodity.

-By Alex MacDonald, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail] (David Fickling in Sydney contributed to this article.)