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China's State Council signed Order No. 837 on May 5, 2026, publishing the Regulations on Outbound Investment by Enterprises on June 1, 2026, effective July 1, 2026. The 34-article framework introduces full-process supervision of all outbound direct investment (ODI) by Chinese enterprises and individuals, requiring combined MOFCOM and export-control clearance for projects involving controlled technologies. The regulations authorise countermeasures against foreign governments that discriminate against Chinese outbound investors and establish a national ODI information-reporting system with real-time monitoring.

Premier Li Qiang signed State Council Order No. 839 on 20 May 2026, promulgating the "Regulations for the Implementation of the Mineral Resources Law of the People's Republic of China" (8 chapters, 79 articles), effective 15 June 2026. The Regulations are the primary implementing instrument for the revised Mineral Resources Law and establish a unified governance architecture across the entire mineral value chain — exploration, production, processing, stockpiling, and emergency supply mobilisation — with inter-agency coordination spanning MNR, NDRC, MIIT, the State Grain and Material Reserves Administration, NEA, and the State Administration of Mine Safety. The Regulations introduce a three-layer strategic reserve system (physical stockpiles, production-capacity reserves, and in-ground strategic areas), grant the state authority to directly organise mining and distribution during supply emergencies (Article 59), and explicitly authorise countermeasures against nations that restrict China's access to mineral supply chains (Article 76).

Premier Li Qiang signed State Council Order No. 834 on 31 March 2026 promulgating the "Provisions on Industrial Chain and Supply Chain Security" (18 articles), adopted at the State Council executive meeting on 13 March 2026 and effective on the date of publication. The Provisions are the first dedicated PRC administrative regulation on industrial- and supply-chain security and consolidate authorities drawn from the National Security Law, Foreign Relations Law, Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, and Foreign Trade Law into a horizontal defensive framework. They establish a cross-agency coordination mechanism spanning roughly 15 central departments (industrial, security, cyberspace, customs and financial regulators) plus provincial governments; create a security-investigation system; and vest broad countermeasure authority over both foreign states (Article 14 — import/export prohibitions and special levies) and foreign organisations and individuals (Article 15 — import/export bans, China-investment bars, transaction prohibitions, entry bars and revocation of work or residence permits, with extension to effectively-controlled subsidiaries). The Provisions also impose compliance, information-sharing, strategic-reserve and emergency-response obligations on PRC organisations and individuals, and authorise requisition, mandated production and directed transportation in the event of supply-chain disruption.

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and General Administration of Customs (GAC) issued Announcement No. 72 (2025) on November 9, 2025, suspending Article 2 of Announcement No. 46 (2024) — the provision that had imposed a categorical export ban on gallium, germanium, antimony, superhard materials, and graphite dual-use items destined for the United States. The suspension is valid until November 27, 2026, reverting these exports to China's standard dual-use licensing framework for that period. Article 1 of Announcement No. 46 — prohibiting re-exports to US military end-users regardless of routing — remains fully in force. The measure followed bilateral US-China trade consultations and signals a conditional de-escalation window within China's established critical-minerals counter-strike posture.

MIIT, NDRC and MNR jointly issued the Interim Measures for Total Volume Control of Rare Earth Mining and Rare Earth Smelting and Separation on August 22, 2025, the first implementing regulation under State Council Order No. 785. The measures establish annual national production ceilings (for both mining and smelting/separation), distributed directly to designated enterprises at the start of each year, and — in the most novel provision — extend quota controls to rare-earth content in imported raw materials (e.g. Myanmar concentrate, Kazakh monazite, Guinea feedstocks) for the first time. Enterprises must report monthly output against quotas to local authorities and submit the prior month's flow data to an MIIT-operated traceability platform by the 10th of each month.

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.

MOFCOM and the General Administration of Customs jointly issued Announcement No. 10 [2025] on 4 February 2025, imposing dual-use export-licence controls on items related to tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum and indium under the Export Control Law and Dual-Use Items Export Control Regulations. The controls cover metals, alloys, powders, compounds and related processing technologies across roughly 25 listed item categories (41 HS 10-digit codes). The measure is global in scope but was issued the same day China announced 10-15% retaliatory tariffs on US LNG, coal, crude and farm equipment in response to the Trump administration's 10% fentanyl-tariff hike — extending the MOFCOM critical-minerals control regime beyond gallium/germanium/graphite/antimony/heavy-REEs.

On 16 April 2025 (Beijing time), Zijin Mining Group completed a USD 1 billion, 100% acquisition of the Akyem open-pit gold mine in Ghana from Newmont Corporation, following an October 2024 purchase agreement. Akyem produced between 6.4 and 13.1 tonnes of gold per year over 2021–2024. The deal is Zijin's seventh gold-related overseas transaction since 2020, part of a stated strategy to exceed 100 t/yr of mined gold by 2028 and has moved Zijin from 13th to 6th place among global gold producers by output.

Order of the State Council No. 785, adopted at the 31st executive meeting on April 26, 2024 and effective October 1, 2024, is the first comprehensive statutory regulation governing China's entire rare earth industry chain — from mining and smelting through product circulation and import/export. It replaces the 2012 administrative-regulation framework with higher-authority State Council instruments, centralising quota allocation under MIIT+NDRC+MNR, establishing a mandatory national rare earth traceability platform, and extending domestic controls to foreign-origin feedstock refined in China. This regulation is the umbrella enabling instrument for all downstream MOFCOM and MIIT rare earth export-control measures enacted from 2024 onward.

On 22 March 2024, MMG Limited (67%-owned by state-owned China Minmetals Corporation) completed its USD 1.875 billion acquisition of Cuprous Capital, parent company of the Khoemacau Copper Mine in Botswana's Kalahari Copperbelt, from Cupric Canyon Capital and other private shareholders. The deal was announced 22 November 2023 and is the largest overseas copper-mine acquisition by a Chinese company since 2018 and the largest Chinese investment in Botswana to date. Khoemacau has a mineral resource base of ~450 Mt at 1.4% copper grade, an initial 27-year mine life, and produces close to 60,000 t/yr of copper plus ~2 million oz/yr of silver.

On 23 October 2023 Manono Lithium SAS — a joint venture between Zijin Mining's overseas subsidiary Jinxiang Lithium Limited (~55% stake) and the DRC state-owned entity COMINIERE (~35-39%) — secured the exploration licence for the northeast block of the Manono Lithium Project (formerly disputed PR 13359-NE) after Congolese courts returned full title to COMINIERE, which then invited Zijin to jointly develop it. A mining licence was granted in September 2024, and Zijin commissioned initial lithium production at the site in June 2026, targeting approximately 120,000 t/yr LCE in 2026 and up to 270,000–320,000 t/yr at full capacity. Manono NE is now among the world's largest lithium mines under Chinese operational control, deepening China's existing hold over DRC critical-mineral output (CMOC cobalt/copper, CNMC/Sinohydro copper) and establishing the DRC as a top-tier lithium producer inside the Chinese supply-chain sphere.

China's Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs jointly announced (Announcement No. 33 of 2023) export-licensing controls on graphite products, effective 1 December 2023. The regime covers natural flake graphite and products thereof (including spherical graphite and graphite powder used in lithium-ion battery anodes) as well as high-purity, high-hardness, and high-strength synthetic graphite materials. Exporters must obtain dual-use-item licences from MOFCOM citing end-user and end-use; licences are granted at MOFCOM's discretion. The announcement came three days after the 17 October 2023 BIS advanced-chip-controls expansion, continuing the proportional-response pattern established with Ga/Ge in July.

Ganfeng Lithium (HKG:1772 / SZE:002460), China's largest lithium producer, has accumulated controlling interests in Argentina's most significant lithium brine operations through a series of transactions since 2019. The key assets are: **Cauchari-Olaroz (Jujuy Province):** Ganfeng holds 46.5% of the project alongside Lithium Americas Corp (53.5%), which commenced commercial production in mid-2023. It is Argentina's largest lithium brine operation, targeting 40,000 tonnes per year of battery-grade lithium carbonate. Ganfeng provides offtake for substantially all lithium carbonate produced and has rights to purchase Lithium Americas' share of output at market prices. **Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes (PPG) basin (Salta Province):** Ganfeng agreed in 2024-2025 to consolidate the PPG lithium basin through a new joint venture in which Ganfeng holds 67% and Lithium Argentina (spun off from Lithium Americas) holds 33%. The basin is one of Argentina's largest undeveloped lithium brine resources. The SEC filing confirming this consolidation was published in April 2025. Combined, Ganfeng's Argentine lithium position gives it a structurally significant share of Argentina's battery-grade lithium output and exploration pipeline — positioned within the lithium triangle alongside Chilean and Bolivian deposits but with operational production at Cauchari-Olaroz already running. The investments were financed through a combination of Ganfeng's corporate balance sheet and China Development Bank-linked project finance. Ganfeng has also established its own lithium hydroxide refining capacity in China fed from the Cauchari-Olaroz brine, creating a vertically integrated supply chain from Argentine salar to Chinese battery-grade product.

In December 2021 Sinomine Resource Group (SHA:002738), a Chinese specialty mining company, agreed to acquire the Bikita lithium mine in Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe, from Bikita Minerals (Pvt) Ltd for USD 180 million. The acquisition was completed in January 2022. Sinomine subsequently committed an additional USD 300 million to expand operations and construct a spodumene concentrate processing plant on-site. Bikita is one of Zimbabwe's largest and oldest lithium operations, with significant spodumene (hard rock) lithium mineralisation. Under Sinomine's ownership it became the most significant lithium producer in Zimbabwe, with concentrate output feeding Chinese battery-grade lithium hydroxide refineries. Zimbabwe holds one of Africa's largest lithium reserves, and the Bikita acquisition was the first of several Chinese acquisitions of Zimbabwean lithium assets in 2021-2023. The acquisition followed Zimbabwe's 2019 ban on raw lithium ore exports (requiring in-country beneficiation) — a policy that created a competitive moat for investors willing to build processing capacity on-site, which Chinese companies with integrated battery supply-chain incentives were better positioned to fund than Western juniors. Sinomine's acquisition was part of a broader Chinese consolidation of Zimbabwean lithium: Huayou Cobalt, Chengxin Lithium, and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt each acquired significant stakes in other Zimbabwean lithium projects over the same period, creating a near-monopoly on Zimbabwe's emerging lithium sector.

The Export Control Law of the People's Republic of China was adopted by the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress on 17 October 2020 (Presidential Order No. 58) and entered into force on 1 December 2020. Comprising 5 chapters and 49 articles, it establishes the unified statutory framework governing China's export-control regime over dual-use items, military items, nuclear items, and other goods, technologies, services, and data whose export could affect national security or China's non-proliferation obligations. The law introduces comprehensive licensing requirements, end-user and end-use certification, deemed-export and re-export controls with extraterritorial reach, a Controlled Entities List (CEL) with matching-entity restrictions, and substantial criminal and administrative penalties — and it is the parent statutory authority under which every China export-control implementing instrument in the IPTM register operates.

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.