Commodities group Glencore became the first of the large miners to honour promises to return cash to shareholders, announcing a share buyback programme of up to $1 billion as it reported forecast-beating first-half profit.

Expectation of Glencore making good on its promise was heightened with this month’s completion of the sale of Glencore’s Peruvian copper project Las Bambas to a Chinese consortium for some $6.5 billion after tax, either through a buyback or special dividend.

Set against a market capitalisation of almost $80 billion, a $1 billion buyout is about half the size of the reward expected by some analysts.

After posting an 8 per cent rise in first-half core profit, Glencore said the buyback will be carried out by the end of next March. – (Reuters)