Glencore shares crashed after 2 workers died in an accident at a copper mine

Shares in commodity giant Glencore plunged on Wednesday afternoon after a whole heap of bad news hit the company at the same time.

Glencore’s stock dropped by more than 18% on the day, after China announced a set of horrific export/import data, the company’s CEO took home a huge paycheck despite profits falling 69%, and a substantial accident hit one of the company’s mines. Here’s how that looked:

Investing.com

This morning, China released its latest trade data, with imports falling by 14% in February, adding to worries about the country’s economy. Commodity firms like Glencore rely heavily on the Chinese market, which is the biggest importer of raw materials on earth.

However the big driver of the fall this afternoon seems to be the collapse of a pit wall in one of the company’s African mines. Two workers were killed by the accident at Glencore’s Katanga mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and five more are still missing.

A statement from the company said: “It is with deepest regret that two bodies have been recovered from the KOV open pit. The search for the remaining five individuals continues with all available resources allocated to the search and rescue operations.”

To add to the perfect storm of bad news on Tuesday, it was announced this morning that CEO Ivan Glasenberg was given a $1.51 million (£1.06 million) payout last year, despite a near apocalyptic ally bad year for the firm in 2015.

Despite being the by far the biggest loser on the FTSE100 today, Glencore isn’t the only commodity firm to book big losses in its share price today. Anglo American, the world’s biggest platinum miner has lost 15.24%, ending an eight-day winning streak, while other FTSE listed mining firms, Antofagasta, Rio Tinto, and BHP Billiton also tumbled today. Their shares closed the day down 9.71%, 9.61%, and 8.39% respectively.