Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2662 actions· ✨ 89 recent

In May 2011 Jinchuan Group, one of China's largest nickel and copper producers (Gansu Province, state-owned), agreed to acquire South African mining company Metorex Limited for ZAR 9.1 billion (approximately USD 1.36 billion), besting a competing bid from Vale. Metorex's principal asset was a 77% stake in Kinsenda Copper Company (DRC), operator of the Kinsenda underground copper mine in Katanga Province — at the time one of the world's highest-grade active underground copper mines, with ore grades of approximately 5.5% copper. The acquisition gave Jinchuan effective control of Kinsenda, adding high-grade DRC copper production to its existing Chinese and African operations. It was one of the first Chinese state-enterprise acquisitions of a JSE-listed mining company and established a template for Chinese SOE outbidding of Western and emerging-market competitors for African copper assets. The deal was financed by state-directed credit from China Development Bank and represents one of approximately 14 high-value mining transactions (each >$100M) in which Chinese policy-bank lending was deployed to secure copper and cobalt assets in the DRC-Zambia copper belt in the 2010-2015 period.

The Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011 (Cth Act No. 38 of 2011; assented 12 April 2011, commenced 6 December 2011 with the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011) is Australia's foundational parent statute enabling the entire autonomous sanctions regime — economic and travel measures imposed unilaterally by Australia independently of UN Security Council mandatory obligations. The Minister for Foreign Affairs may, by legislative instrument, impose targeted financial sanctions, travel bans, and vessel-dealing prohibitions on designated persons, entities, and vessels. As of 2026 the Act underpins Australia's autonomous sanctions programs against Russia, Iran, DPRK, Myanmar, Belarus, Syria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Libya, Ukraine (occupied territories), and other regimes, and was materially extended in December 2021 to authorise Magnitsky-style thematic human-rights and corruption sanctions. Structurally peer-foundational to the UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (SAMLA), Canada's Special Economic Measures Act 1992 (SEMA), Japan's FEFTA sanctions provisions, and the EU's Anti-Coercion Instrument — the ASA 2011 completes the G7+AU sanctions-parent-statute set in the IPTM register.