(Bloomberg) -- Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. is hiring the former head of lead and zinc at rival trader IXM SA, the latest senior addition in a major push into metals in recent months.
Xavier-Alexandre Ortiz will join Mercuria in the same role once his gardening leave ends in the next few months, according to people familiar with the matter. He worked at IXM for almost 14 years before leaving the company in June.
Mercuria last month appointed Kostas Bintas, the former co-head of metals at Trafigura Group, to spearhead a push into metals and has added more than a dozen staff to the business in the past few months.
Ortiz has specialized in trading lead and zinc ores, known as concentrates. He is the latest hire among what will eventually be the senior leadership team of Mercuria’s metals business.
Mehdi Wetterwald, former co-head of battery metals at Trafigura, is now head of copper and battery metals at Mercuria. Eugene Chan, formerly of Zhejiang Hailiang Co. and Trafigura, has also recently joined as a derivatives trader, and further senior hires are likely in the coming months.
Bloomberg previously reported that Mercuria — which until this summer had only a handful of metals traders — was planning to build a metals team of around 40 staff.
Mercuria declined to comment.
--With assistance from Mark Burton.
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