A consortium led by China's biggest gold miner, Zijin Mining Group Co (
The proposed acquisition, announced earlier this week by Monterrico and Zijin, is the latest in a series of low-profile but substantial purchases of overseas mining assets by Chinese companies -- part of the country's quest to diversify supplies of strategically important resources.
Monterrico, a London-based resource company with shares traded on the Alternative Investments Market, holds rights to the undeveloped Rio Blanco copper and molybdenum deposits in northern Peru, which the company says could yield up to 25 million tonnes of copper ore a year.
Zijin holds a 45 percent share in the consortium, with Chinese copper miner Tongling Nonferrous Metals (Group) Inc (銅陵有色金屬) taking 35 percent and Xiamen C&D Corp (建發集團), a trading and real estate conglomerate, holding 20 percent, Zijin said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The consortium, dubbed Xiamen Zijin Tongguan Investment Development Co (
Monterrico's board unanimously recommended that shareholders accept its offer.
Previous overseas acquisitions by Chinese companies have involved non-listed companies or joint venture arrangements, state media reports said.
China imports about 70 percent of all the copper it uses and wants a wider supply base. This week, President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), on an eight-nation African tour, offered a multimillion dollar investment package to copper-rich Zambia, where Chinese firms have spent billions of dollars developing the sector.
In September, the Aluminum Corp of China (中國鋁業), or Chalco, acquired the rights to develop a bauxite mine and alumina refinery project, at an estimated cost of US$2.2 billion, in the Australian state of Queensland. Chalco has also committed US$1.6 billion to develop a bauxite and alumina project in Vietnam.
Like Chalco, which also has shares traded in Hong Kong, Zijin is keen to take advantage of its cash-rich position to expand its assets. It announced last week plans for an initial public offering in Shanghai to raise funds for further expansion.
"The proposed acquisition of Monterrico would represent an important increase in the company's resources and production," Zijin said of its acquisition of loss-making Monterrico.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
RSS