It is reported that while struggling with the tough price talk for annual iron ore benchmark, Chinese enterprises are also actively seeking for more overseas resources.

Mr Zhou Zhongshu president of Chinese state owned metals trader Minmetals, disclosed when receiving an interview that Minmetals would continue to speed up acquirements of mining companies and would put more focus on medium and small sized companies.

He said that Minmetals was now looking into iron ore project in both Africa and Australia. A source familiar with the environment said that Minmetals had started its large scale iron ore project in Mauritania and the prophase proving had been completed.

Minmetals also tries to explore resources in India, South Africa and Turkey. By then end of 2008, the group has possessed proven iron ore reserves of 640 million tonnes. Besides, Minmetals' MMG, established in Australia over the acquirement of OZ, reported sound performance. Changsha Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and Luzhong Metallurgy and Mining Group also become Minmetals' wholly-owned subsidiaries.

(Sourced from MySteel.net)
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