Glencore's stock on the Stock Exchange falls sharply, losing 27% on the London stock exchange in the early afternoon, the worst fall of the Ftse 100.
Prior to the opening of trading, the group had announced the sale of the Araguaia nickel project in Brazil for $8 million to Horizonte Minerals.
Shares of the commodity giant, which slipped below 100 pence last week for the first time since listing in 2011, are now trading at 70 pence. Since the beginning of the year, Glencore has sold more than 70% of its value.
According to analysts at Investec, as the low commodity prices continue, "nearly all of Glencore's equity value would vanish in the absence of a substantial debt restructuring."
The mining giant led by Ivan Glasenberg has already implemented a $10 billion debt relief program that also includes a recapitalization and dividend cancellation. Even Goldman Sachs said Glencore's recent steps to reduce debt and strengthen its balance sheet are not enough.
However, the sell-off on mining stocks is generalised. Along with Glencore, the six worst performing stocks of the session in the UK blue chip index are Anglo American, Antofagasta, Fresnillo, Bhp Billiton and Randgold Resources.
The exception is Alcoa, which instead rips by 5% after iThe board unanimously approved a plan to separate the group's businesses into two publicly traded but independent companies. A decision that concludes the multi-year transformation of the group: the spin-off, explains a note, will give life to an upstream company that will be made up of five strong business units that today respond to the main products, including bauxite, alumina, aluminum.
