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Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair made one million dollars acting as a mediator in a mining deal. Blair brokered talks between billionaire businessmen who were trying to save a 50-billion-pound mining deal. According to the Daily Mail, Blair was drafted in for a late-night meeting at Claridge’s hotel in Mayfair, central London, as the businessmen had reached an impasse over commodities trader Glencore’s plans to merge with miner Xstrata. In the secret midnight meeting, Blair acted as a mediator in negotiations between Glencore boss Ivan Glasenberg and Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, the paper said. According to the report, Jaber al-Thani was threatening to use the emirate’s stake in Xstrata to block the merger, unless Glasenberg improved the terms of the deal. The talks, which insiders said lasted less than three hours, ended with Glasenberg submitting a higher offer, but only on the condition that he becomes the head of the combined company. Sources familiar with the negotiations said Blair became involved at the suggestion of veteran banker Michael Klein, of Citigroup, who is advising Qatar and Glencore. “He [Mr Blair[ has travelled the world and brokered deals with some of the most powerful people,” a source said, adding: “He was brought in for his mediation skills”. Blair is also linked to the deal via his 2.5 million-pound-a-year job as a consultant for Wall Street bank JP Morgan, which acts as an adviser to Xstrata, the paper said. Blair is thought to have earned as much as 1 million dollars for his eleventh-hour intervention, without which Glencore would have had to pay 300 million pounds ‘break fee’ to Xstrata. But the 50-billion-pound-deal, originally called as a ‘merger of equals’ between two giant commodities companies, is a long way from being completed, the paper added.

Tony Blair earns $1 m for brokering mining deal