Australia's largest coal miner Glencore will cap its global coal output at current levels in the wake of pressure from activist shareholders as part of a pivot towards minerals used in renewable technologies.

The miner announced on Wednesday night that, while it will continue mining thermal coal, which is used in power stations, and coking coal, which is used for making steel, it will limit production to current levels.

Glencore said it will not cap its global coal production. Credit:Rob Homer

Glencore will instead focus on metals such as cobalt, nickel, vanadium and zinc, which are all key components of batteries as it targeted lower carbon industries as its customers.

"We aim to prioritise capital investment to grow production of commodities essential to the energy and mobility transition and to limit our coal production capacity broadly to current levels," the company said as part of its results announcement.