China conditionally approves Glencore-Xstrata merger

China's Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday conditionally approved commodities trader Glencore's multi-billion dollar acquisition of miner Xstrata Plc .

Glencore has been waiting for several months for China, the biggest buyer of the materials it trades and mines, to give the go-ahead before it can complete its $35 billion acquisition of miner Xstrata, the largest deal in the sector to date.

Glencore would have to begin selling off assets in its Las Bambas copper mine in Peru within three months, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Glencore should also provide certain amounts of copper, zinc and lead concentrates to their Chinese clients every year during the period of 2013 and 2020 as another condition of the approval, the statement said.

(Reporting by Michael Martina and Shao Xiaoyi; editing by Jonathan Standing)