The contract, with an undisclosed value, means BT will be responsible for building and managing Glencore’s global core network across Europe, the Americas, Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. Additionally, BT will provide a “range of collaboration services, including voice, audio conferencing and contact centre services”

It builds on the telecommunications company’s existing mining client base, which includes Anglo American plc, De Beers and Kinross Gold Corp, among others.

Glencore has been working with BT in some capacity since 2004, according to Corrado Sciolla, president of Europe for BT Global Services.

In June Chris Mason, senior business development director for global mining, oil and gas at BT Global Services, told Mining Journal the company was working with about “10 principal major, multi-national organisations” in the natural resources area.

Cyril Reol, Glencore global chief information officer, said: “The recent merger of Glencore and Xstrata presented us with considerable challenges, including those related to the standardisation and management of the network infrastructure and the reliable provision of communication services between our employees. We opted for BT because of its global presence and the quality of its services, giving us the ability to be creative and innovative in the way we leverage technology to meet these challenges.”

Sciolla said the consolidated infrastructure would “allow Glencore’s IT teams to orchestrate technology assets in a way that meets the company’s competitive ambitions”