Chinese companies spend £7bn acquiring overseas mining assets

 

Chinese companies have been acquiring overseas mining assets during 2018, to secure metals and minerals for the energy transition away from fossil fuels.

With over £ 7bn worth of deals in 2018, Chinese groups are now increasingly targeting minerals needed for electric car batteries and clean energy technologies. They even bought stakes in copper, cobalt, lithium assets in countries like Chile, Siberia and Democratic Republic of Congo. China’s Tianqi Lithium’s largest acquisition however, was the $4.1bn purchase of 24 per cent stake in Chilean lithium miner SQM.

In September 2018, China’s state-owned CITIC Metal paid C$723m  to become the largest shareholder in Ivanhoe Mines, which is developing the Kamoakakula Copper deposit in the Democratic Republic of Congo where there is single greatest discovery of copper in the last thirty years”. Chinese miners are likely to be more competitive in deals where they can ultimately control the mine, rather than joint venture.

Last week China’s Molybdenum a miner backed by Chinese billionaire Yu Yong, spent $1.4bn to strengthen its control over a giant copper and cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo following its initial purchase of a majority stake from US miner Freeport-McMoran for $2.65bn in 2016.

On January 1, Barrick completed its $6bn all-stock merger with London-listed Randgold, while last week, US miner Newmont made $10bn bid for Canadian rival Goldcorp.