metals
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
and
mineral
In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ( ...
trading
Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market.
An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exchan ...
company headquartered in
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
. It is a
state-owned
State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownersh ...
corporation under direct supervision of the
State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission
The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) is a special commission of the People's Republic of China, directly under the State Council. It was founded in 2003 through the consolidation of variou ...
(SASAC). China Minmetals is engaged in the production and trading of metals and minerals, including
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
,
aluminum
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...
,
tungsten
Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolat ...
,
tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal.
Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...
,
antimony
Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient time ...
,
lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
,
zinc
Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
, and
nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...
.
It is one of the largest metals and minerals trading companies in the world and the largest iron and steel trader in China. The company handles more than 12 million tons of steel products annually. It also trades iron, coke, coal, copper, zinc, and lead. In addition to the trade of metals, China Minmetals also trades in electrical products and operates subsidiaries that focus on
real estate
Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...
development,
marine shipping
Maritime transport (or ocean transport) and hydraulic effluvial transport, or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people (passengers) or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by sea has been widely used throug ...
,
mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
, and other
investment
Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort.
In finance, the purpose of investing i ...
activities.
In the United States, the company operates as Minmetals Inc, with its North American headquarters located in
Weehawken
Weehawken is a township in the northern part of Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located largely on the Hudson Palisades overlooking the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 17,197.
, New Jersey, US. It is a member of the
United Nations Global Compact
The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to encourage businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is a princ ...
's LEAD, a new platform established in January 2011 for corporate sustainability leadership.
History
Minmetals' sales network is worldwide. It operates more than 100 offices in China and more than 40 companies abroad. China Minmetals Corporation was founded in 1950.
Minmetals, parent of Hong Kong-listed Minmetals Resources Ltd (1208.HK) and Shanghai-listed Minmetals Development (600058.SS), is focusing its overseas expansion on Latin America and Africa to secure natural resources to supply a fast-growing
Chinese economy
The China, People's Republic of China has an upper middle income Developing country, developing Mixed economy, mixed socialist market economy that incorporates economic planning through Industrial policy, industrial policies and strategic Five- ...
.
In 2014, Minmetals was ranked No. 198 among the
Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...
revenue
In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business.
Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...
of US$26.67 billion. The turnover and profits of China Minmetals reached US$21.8 billion and RMB 6.8 billion in 2007. Its resource reserves include 604 million tons of iron ore, 250 million tons of coke and 410,000 tons of tungsten. It can supply annually 11 million tons of
rolled
Rolling is a Motion (physics)#Types of motion, type of motion that combines rotation (commonly, of an Axial symmetry, axially symmetric object) and Translation (geometry), translation of that object with respect to a surface (either one or the ot ...
steel, 4.1 million tons of coal, 800,000 tons of coke, 145,000 tons of electrolytic copper, and 700,000 tons of alumina.
In the field of
ferrous metal
In chemistry, the adjective Ferrous indicates a compound that contains iron(II), meaning iron in its +2 oxidation state, possibly as the divalent cation Fe2+. It is opposed to "ferric" or iron(III), meaning iron in its +3 oxidation state, such ...
, China Minmetals remained the top steel trader of the nation and sped up the development of its upstream industrial chain. In the iron exploration in
Anhui
Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...
province, it has controlled 100 million tons of
magnetite
Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe2+Fe3+2O4. It is one of the oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. With the ...
and 30 million tons of
pyrite
The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Iron, FeSulfur, S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral.
Pyrite's metallic Luster (mineralogy), lust ...
.
In the field of nonferrous metal, China Minmetals cooperated with
Jiangxi Copper Corp
Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north into hi ...
to purchase 100% stake of Northern Peru Copper Corp (Canada), and set up joint venture with the U.S. Century Aluminum Corp in Jamaica to acquire the mining right for 150 million tons of
bauxite
Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO(O ...
. Its alumina project in
Guangxi
Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...
Minerals and Metals Group
MMG Limited is a mid-tier global resources company that mines, explores and develops base metal projects around the world. MMG's largest shareholder is China Minmetals with 68%.OZ Minerals in June 2009. The deal in which the Golden Grove, Sepon, Century, Rosebery, Avebury, Dugald River, High Lake and Izok Lake Mines as well as some exploration assets were sold for US$1.354 billion by OZ Minerals to China Minmetals, initially also including the Prominent Hill Mine, but was blocked by the
Australian Government
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...
, citing national security concerns.
Wayne Swan
Wayne Maxwell Swan (born 30 June 1954), often colloquially referred to as Swanny, is an Australian politician who is National President of the Labor Party. He was previously the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Deputy Leader of the Labor ...
,
Treasurer of Australia
The Treasurer of Australia (or Federal Treasurer) is a high ranking official and senior minister of the Crown in the Government of Australia who is the head of the Ministry of the Treasury which is responsible for government expenditure and ...
, stated that Prominent Hill could not be included in the sale as it was within sensitive military area and the sale only went ahead after Prominent Hill was excluded.
China Metallurgical Group Corp
In 2015, China Minmetals acquired China Metallurgical Group, a government-owned engineering and mining group. The merger was finalized as part of China's attempt to overhaul SOEs and consolidate the metals industry.
Anvil Mining Ltd. acquisition
Minmetals Resources Ltd., a subsidiary of China Minmetals Group, agreed to buy
Anvil Mining
Anvil Mining was a copper producer that has been operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from 2002 to 2012.
The company headquarters were in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Anvil was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Australian ...
Ltd. for HK$10 billion ($1.3 billion).
Anvil's main property is the
Kinsevere
Kinsevere is an open pit mine and Heavy Media Separation plant with an electric arc furnace formerly operated by Anvil Mining, and now operated by Minerals and Metals Group.
It is located north of Lubumbashi, Katanga Province, Democratic Republic ...
mine, being upgraded in 2011 to produce about 60,000 tons of copper annually. Anvil is studying the potential for further increasing the rate of production.
Equinox Bid
In 2011 Minmetals launched a $6.5 billion takeover bid for
Equinox Minerals
Equinox Minerals is a mining and exploration company with corporate offices in Perth, Australia and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has operations in Peru and Australia. In Zambia it owned the Lumwana Mining Company, but that was bought by Barrick ...
, a Canadian mining company. It was the largest unsolicited takeover attempt by a Chinese mining company to date. Equinox Minerals rejected the takeover offer, later accepting a 16% higher bid by
Barrick Gold
Barrick Gold Corporation is a mining company that produces gold and copper with 16 operating sites in 13 countries. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has mining operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Democrati ...