Glencore has quickly flexed its new financial muscle by announcing a $3.2bn deal to buy a Kazakhstan mining group on the day it unveiled its public share offering valuing the trading group at about $60bn.

The world’s biggest commodities trader’s determination to participate in the consolidation of the natural resources industry comes as oil, copper and corn prices have surged as a result of the industrialisation of emerging economies.

Ivan Glasenberg, chief executive, told the Financial Times that the cash and shares acquisition of Kazzinc was the “first display” of the new force of the Swiss-based company following four decades of private ownership. “We have now the firepower,” he said, explaining that as a privately owned company Glencore would not have been able to buy Kazzinc.