While the oil & gas conglomerates are often in the public eye – oil spills do not help and ‘super’ profits make for standard headlines – the basic materials miners are the great ‘unknowns’ – the elephants in a vastly interconnected world

Next to the established global miners – listed in London and New-York – BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Glencore and Anglo-American – we include large Chinese companies and Russian Norilsk Nickel, all quoted on the OTC market, not only for market caps exceeding $10bn but as national – and strategic – flag bearers

Commodity trading and logistics houses are the other – for most part even less known – side of the energy and materials business, made up mostly by private companies – Mercuria, Trafigura, Vitol and Gunvor with revenues in the incredible range of $50-$100bn

Major actors of globalization, with tightly knit relationships, the miners and the traders are facing the headwinds of resurgent national interests, keen to question – and in some cases to condemn – global networks and agreements