Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2678 actions· ✨ 92 recent

On 23 April 2025 CMOC Group (HKG:3993) announced the acquisition of TSXV-listed Lumina Gold Corp — 100% owner of the Cangrejos (Los Cangrejos) gold-copper project in El Oro Province, southwestern Ecuador — via a court-sanctioned plan of arrangement at C$1.27/share (C$581M / ~USD 420M); the transaction closed on 24 June 2025 through a Singapore subsidiary, making Cangrejos Ecuador's largest primary gold deposit under full Chinese operational control. On 27 April 2026 CMOC's Ecuadorian subsidiary ODIN Mining del Ecuador signed a 26-year exploitation contract with Ecuador's Ministry of Energy and Mines committing >$1.7B in total investment (~$54M advance royalties, $34M paid on signing); commercial production is targeted for 2028 at ~11.5 t/yr gold (~370,000 oz/yr), making the state-projected total revenues $4.39B over the mine life. The acquisition extends CMOC's critical-mineral portfolio — anchored in DRC cobalt/copper — into Ecuadorian gold and copper, concentrating a globally significant undeveloped gold-copper deposit under Chinese operational control ahead of the competing 2026 Ecuador–US Critical Minerals Bilateral Framework.

On 13 March 2024 the State Council issued the Action Plan on Promoting Large-Scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-In as Guo Fa [2024] No. 7, distributed by NDRC alongside ten implementing ministries. Branded the "Two New" (两新) initiative, it is the flagship Xi/Li-era domestic-demand industrial-policy instrument structured around four action lines (equipment renewal, consumer-goods trade-in, recycling and circular utilisation, standards uplift) with twenty specific tasks and 2027 quantitative targets including ≥25% increase in equipment investment vs 2023 across industry, agriculture, construction, transport, education and healthcare. Funded by CNY 150bn of ultra-long-term special treasury bonds in 2024, expanded to CNY 300bn earmarked in 2025, the programme drove >CNY 1.3 trillion of consumer-goods trade-in transactions (autos, appliances, home furnishings, e-bikes) in its first year and is the central pillar of Beijing's response to the property-sector slowdown.

On 26 July 2018 the Serbian government agreed to sell a 63% stake in RTB Bor — the state-owned copper mining complex in eastern Serbia — to Zijin Mining Group (HKG:2899) for approximately USD 350 million plus a committed investment of USD 1.26 billion over five years. The transaction closed on 24 September 2018 after Chinese MOFCOM and Serbian government approvals. RTB Bor operates the Bor open-pit copper mine and the Čukaru Peki underground mine. Under Zijin's management, combined annual copper output reached 296,000 tonnes in 2025, making Zijin the second-largest copper producer in Europe after KGHM (Poland). The complex also produces significant gold as a by-product. The acquisition was facilitated by the China-Serbia comprehensive strategic partnership and BRI connectivity framework. The Serbian government accepted Chinese investment at a discount to assessed asset value in exchange for committed capital expenditure in a region with limited Western private-sector appetite for brownfield copper. EU membership negotiations and EU state-aid rules complicated alternative European financing structures. Zijin financed the acquisition through a combination of corporate balance sheet and China Development Bank-syndicated loans. The Čukaru Peki mine, which was not included in the initial RTB Bor asset base, received a separate Zijin investment commitment exceeding USD 800 million.

On 9 May 2016 CMOC Group (China Molybdenum Co., HKG:3993 / SHA:603993) signed agreements to acquire Freeport-McMoRan's 56% stake in Tenke Fungurume Mining (TFM) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for USD 2.65 billion, with additional financing from China Development Bank. A concurrent transaction acquired TF Holdings' 24% stake, bringing CMOC's total to 80% with Gécamines retaining 20%. The transaction closed on 16 November 2016 following regulatory approvals from the DRC Ministry of Mines, the US CFIUS (approved without conditions), and Chinese MOFCOM. Tenke Fungurume is the world's second-largest cobalt mine and fifth-largest copper mine, located in Lualaba Province. At the time of acquisition it produced approximately 16,000 tonnes of cobalt per year (hydroxide) and 180,000 tonnes of copper cathode, representing roughly 20% of global mined cobalt supply. CMOC subsequently expanded production to approximately 50,000 tonnes of cobalt per year by 2023-2024 through the Kisanfu (KFM) discovery development — bringing combined TFM+KFM output to ~115,000 tonnes of cobalt annually, or roughly 38% of DRC cobalt production and approximately 25% of global supply from a single operator. The acquisition was the largest Chinese overseas mining transaction of 2016 and established China's dominant structural position in the cobalt supply chain at the mine level — upstream of both DRC export controls (ARECOMS quota system, filed 2025-02-22) and Chinese processing/re-export controls on battery-grade cobalt compounds. CMOC is simultaneously the world's largest cobalt producer and an entity subject to Chinese government export licensing for the same materials — a concentration structure without precedent in critical minerals. The China Development Bank provided a $2.68 billion loan facility financing the majority of the acquisition, making this an explicit policy-bank-backed strategic asset purchase consistent with NDRC guidelines on overseas critical mineral investment priorities. Sinosure provided political-risk insurance cover on the DRC exposure.

On 26 November 2013 a Chinese consortium led by MMG Limited (HKG:1208, the listed mining arm of China MinMetals Corporation) agreed to acquire the Las Bambas copper project in Apurímac, Peru from Glencore PLC for USD 5.85 billion. The sale was completed on 7 April 2014. MMG holds 62.5% of the consortium; CITIC Metal holds 15%; Guoxin International holds 22.5%. All three are Chinese state-linked entities. Las Bambas is one of the world's largest copper deposits. Since commencing production in 2016 it has produced approximately 300,000-400,000 tonnes of copper concentrate per year, representing roughly 1-1.5% of global mined copper supply and approximately 10% of Peru's total copper exports. Peru is the world's second-largest copper producer (~10% global supply), so Las Bambas is a material share of the Andean copper complex. The acquisition was MOFCOM-directed: as a condition of approving the Glencore-Xstrata merger in 2013, China's Ministry of Commerce required Glencore to divest Las Bambas to a Chinese buyer within 12 months of merger completion. This is the definitive case of Chinese antitrust authority being used as an instrument of resource-acquisition policy — MOFCOM leveraged deal approval to transfer a world-class copper asset to Chinese state-linked ownership. Las Bambas has been the source of persistent community conflicts in Apurímac Province, with road blockades in 2022-2023 halting production for extended periods and bringing the Peru government into direct negotiation with MMG and local communities. China's policy-bank financing (CDB-backed) for the acquisition underpins the ongoing operation despite these disruptions.