Vale's putative $85bn takeover of Xstrata was last night on the brink of collapse after a major shareholder in the Anglo-Swiss miner refused to agree to the terms of the offer.

Glencore, the commodities trader which owns 35 per cent of Xstrata, was demanding a significant extension of the lucrative marketing rights to commodities, including coal and nickel, that it already has in place with Xstrata, according to people close to the situation. Those people said the terms were not acceptable to Vale.