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Ivan Glasenberg, chief executive officer of Glencore International Plc.

Glencore, which owns 34.5% of Xstrata, is its major trading partner, with an agreement to trade 90% of Xstrata's offtake. Xstrata, a diversified miner operating in 20 countries, has as its major products coal, ferrochrome, copper, zinc and platinum.

If the merger goes ahead the new company will be an $88-billion mining and commodities trading giant - the fourth- biggest mining group by market capitalisation, behind BHP Billiton, Vale and Rio Tinto. Speculation is now rife that Anglo American will be a takeover target.

Rhynhard Roodt, an analyst at Investec, said the business model of the merged company is likely to be centred on bulk commodities like coal.

Of major importance to a Glencore-Xstrata merger will be the division of labour between Glencore's Ivan Glasenberg and Xstrata CEO Mick Davis. Those in the know believe Davis will assume the role of CEO in the new company, but only speculation surrounds Glasenberg's future job description.

Investec has Glasenberg pinned as chairman and Davis as CEO of the new company, since about 75% of the business will be mining - Davis's remit - and 25% will be the trading business, which is Glasenberg's strength. 

The two men know each other well and have a lot in common. Described as "frenemies" by the Wall Street Journal, both are South African, both are Jewish and both have made vast amounts of money leading global corporations into extraordinary positions of power.

Glasenberg went to Hyde Park High School and the University of the Witwatersrand. After an MBA in the US, he landed a job in 1983 at Marc Rich & Co, the trading house that ultimately became Glencore.

In 1990 he became head of the coal department at the company's headquarters in the small Swiss town of Baar. In 2002, he was CEO.

He is said to have hand-picked Davis to skipper Xstrata in October 2001. The following year, Xstrata bought up Glencore's key coal assets, leaving the trader with a 34% stake, and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Glasenberg, whose personal wealth is estimated to be about $8-billion, made a cool $5-billion from Glencore's pre-listing initial public offering last year.

Davis went to Theodor Herzl High School in Port Elizabeth and then Rhodes University. He worked at Glencor, and with the help of Brian Gilbertson got the company listed in London and renamed it Billiton.

He was instrumental in brokering the merger between Billiton and Australia's BHP in 2001, creating the world's largest mining company by market capitalisation, but turned down a senior post in the newly formed conglomerate and moved to Xstrata.