China Copper, one of the country’s leading producers of the metal, wants to acquire overseas mineral resources amid tight mined copper supply and rising demand, the company’s chairman told. A lack of rich copper resources at home has driven Chinese companies to hunt elsewhere, with an unexpected supply deficit this year adding to the impetus.
“We hope to cooperate with countries and companies globally to acquire a number of near-production, at-production mineral resources with good quality, large reserves and potential,” Xu Bo wrote in response to. The company will step up cooperation on risky projects with a low exploration rate and great potential, wrote Xu, a delegate of the National People’s Congress at the annual meeting of parliament in Beijing. China Copper holds the Toromocho Copper mine in central Peru, via its parent company Aluminum Corporation of China (Chalco), the state-owned metal giant. Smelters in China, the world’s top refined copper producer, were hit by tightening raw material supplies after the closure of the big Cobre Panama mine late last year