Resource News
China swoops on Australian iron-ore, uranium firms
By resourceINTEL · September 9, 2009 · 6:42 am · Leave a Comment
SYDNEY – Chinese state-owned firms expanded their footprint in Australia’s mining industry on Tuesday, agreeing to help fund two iron ore explorers in return for supply contracts and taking a controlling stake in a uranium prospector.
China, the world’s third-largest economy, is leading the world out of the deepest global recession in 80 years, and its appetite for raw materials is as strong as ever, especially for Australian commodities such as iron ore.
In two iron ore-related deals announced on Tuesday, China Railway Materials Commercial Corp forged separate alliances with explorers FerrAus and United Minerals, both operating in west Australia’s vast Pilbara iron-ore belt.
In the third, China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Co. Ltd agreed a takeover of uranium prospector Energy Metals.
Another junior iron ore miner, Atlas Iron, revealed to Reuters that it, too, had held inconclusive talks with prospective Chinese investors, though MD David Flanagan said Atlas did not need fresh equity right now.
All foreign sovereign investments need Australian government approval, and the queue of Chinese state investments awaiting the government’s go-ahead is lengthening by the day, all at a time of political tensions between Canberra and Beijing…read more at the Mining Weekly
