Glencore Mine Deaths Give Xstrata Funds Extra Ratio to Mull

Xstrata Plc investors voting next week on Glencore International Plc’s $32 billion bid are being asked to accept a takeover by a commodities supplier with the highest employee fatality rate among its closest peers.

Glencore, whose 61,000 employees are mostly at mines and industrial sites, reported three deaths for every 10,000 workers in 2011. That’s more than triple the 0.8 rate at Xstrata, the world’s largest exporter of thermal coal. The death ratios were 0.9 and 1.2 at Rio Tinto Group and Anglo American Plc, respectively, while the biggest mining company BHP Billiton Ltd. reported a 0.2 rate in its 2011 fiscal year.