London 06/06/2016 - Zijin Mining will acquire Chinese miner Heilong Mining Group for 1.56 billion yuan ($238 million), giving it full ownership of the Duobaoshan copper mine in China, Zijin said.
Zijin currently holds a 51 percent-stake and Heilong Mining a 49 percent-stake in Duobaoshan mine.
The acquisition will help boost Zijin’s reserve of copper resources and "improve its competitiveness and sustainability in the industry", it said in an announcement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday.
With 100-percent ownership of the mine, "production volume and management efficiency can be improved and profitability can be raised" at the mine, it added.
Zijin will fund the acquisition from internal funds or bank borrowings.
The Duobaoshan copper mine in Heilongjiang province contains copper metal of 1.78 million tonnes at a grading of 0.44 percent. It produced 28,978 tonnes of copper metal in 2015.
Zijin, one of China's largest state-owned metals producers, has been aggressively acquiring overseas resources and expanding its capacity in recent years.
Zijin lifted capacity at one of its copper smelter in Shanghang county in Fujian province by 80,000 tonnes per year to 280,000 tonnes per year in October. In December, the company completed the purchase of 49.5 percent of Ivanhoe Mines' Kamoa copper project in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(Editing by Mark Shaw)