Minmetals Carrying Out Due Diligence
China’s largest minerals and metals trader, China Minmetals Corporation, is considering iron ore mining projects in Mauritania to diversify its raw material sources, a report in the China Daily newspaper said on Friday.
The paper reports that the company’s vice-president Xu Siwei, said on Thursday that it has started due diligence on iron ore projects in the West African country and that it expects to sign an agreement soon.
"Other international miners have also expressed interest in the Mauritania mines, but we are confident of succeeding," said Mr Xu.
Mauritania already has one large iron ore operation in SNIM, which exports much of its output to Europe, in particular to France.
Minmetals imported 4 million tons iron ore from Mauritania in 2009 and Mr Xu said that the figure would be higher this year. Mauritania is the ninth largest iron ore supplier to China and Minmetals has been importing Mauritanian iron ore through its branch office in Germany.
The country has been producing iron ore since the early nineteen-fifties. Iron ore mines are situated at at Idjill Kédia, M’haoudat and Guelbs.
China is the latest overseas country to consider mining projects in the country.
Minmetals acquired Australian zinc miner Oz Minerals for $1.4 billion in June 2009 and last year also gained control of Hong Kong-listed Hunan Nonferrous Metals Co Ltd.
Chinese miners will consider more investment opportunities in the higher-risk investment destinations of Africa, Central Asia and Russia as it is difficult to acquire high-yielding mines in low-risk countries like Australia and Canada this year, the newspaper said.
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