China’s Zijin Mining Group, the world’s third-biggest metals miner by market value, said geopolitical confrontation and resource nationalism will pose challenges to its overseas projects.
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“Global uncertainties have become unprecedented,” the copper-gold giant said after reporting record quarterly earnings. “The competition for critical minerals among major powers has entered a high-intensity confrontation phase” that could affect the company’s revenue, profit and new overseas projects, it said.
Zijin has become one of the world’s most important mining companies thanks to rapid growth – largely in Africa – and a focus on two lucrative metals, copper and gold. Its first-half net income jumped 54 per cent to 23.3 billion yuan (US$3.3 billion) thanks to higher output and prices, and its shares rallied to a record in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
The US under President Donald Trump has begun a push to secure American control of resources around the world, with an eye to tackling China’s dominance. For example, a peace deal brokered by Trump between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo was seen as a way to ease US access to the region’s mineral riches.
Critical minerals include a wide range of materials deemed vital to national security because of their important industrial or defence applications. But moves to reshape supply chains risk subjecting prices to volatility and supply disruption, as was the case with Trump’s introduction of copper tariffs earlier this year.
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