Australian listed company Celsius Resources recently announced that it has signed a share sale agreement with Chinalco (Xiong'an) Mining, a subsidiary of Chinalco Corporation, to sell its 95% stake in the Opuwo Copper-Cobalt Project in Namibia for 15 million US dollars. Celsius Resources stated that the core reason for selling the Opuwo Project lies in the shift of strategic focus and the optimization of capital allocation. The company said that this move aims to concentrate its resources on the copper-gold asset portfolio in the Philippines, rather than holding the Opuwo Project as a long-term African development asset.
Relevant data shows that Celsius Resources, a mining company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, focuses its core business on the exploration and development of critical metal resources such as copper and cobalt. Chinalco has committed to investing at least US$750,000 in exploration and US$250,000 in metallurgical tests during the transaction period. Currently, the transaction is awaiting approval from the relevant authorities.
The non-ferrous metals industry continues to merge and expand
Currently, the demand for the copper mine market is driven by the dual wheels of new energy electrification and AI computing power infrastructure. The proportion of traditional real estate/infrastructure has declined, and the world has entered a phase of structural tight balance. Relevant data shows that the average annual gap is expected to expand to the level of 300,000 to 400,000 tons from 2026 to 2028.
From the supply side, global shallow high-grade copper ore is depleted. Investment in copper exploration has been lacking for 30 consecutive years. It takes an average of 17 to 18 years from the discovery of a new mine to its commissioning. Meanwhile, the grade of existing mines is declining, with the average grade dropping from 1% in 1991 to the current 0.6%. The shutdown of old mines is accelerating. It is estimated that the total global output of existing copper mines will be passively reduced by 15% by 2035, leading to a scarcity of incremental supply and a contraction in the industry's supply.
From the demand side, the dual drivers of energy transition and AI computing infrastructure have triggered a structural surge in the market demand for copper resources. It is projected that global copper demand will rise to 42 million tons by 2040, and the existing production capacity will fail to keep pace with its exponential growth.
The supply-demand gap continues to widen. Coupled with the downward US dollar cycle and stable inflation, industrial copper prices will maintain high-level fluctuations in the medium to long term, which provides a profit safety margin for China's overseas heavy asset investments in the non-ferrous metal sector and ensures that mines become profitable immediately upon commissioning. In addition, major consuming countries (such as China and the United States) have successively listed copper as a key strategic mineral. Fears of supply chain disruptions have forced enterprises to grasp the initiative in upstream resources through vertical integration.
Thus, the global copper mine M&A has entered a frenzied integration period of "acquisition is better than self-construction", with core features including cross-border mergers of giants, accelerated overseas expansion of Chinese capital, and premium bidding for mature reserves, all aimed at locking in long-term supply to cope with structural shortages.
Chinese enterprises continue to complete overseas mergers and acquisitions of non-ferrous metal mines
The *Work Plan for Stable Growth in the Non-ferrous Metal Industry (2025-2026)* issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology clearly requires central SOEs to coordinate mineral resources at home and abroad, and to make up for the shortcomings of strategic minerals in line with the "15th Five-Year Plan" (2026-2030). At the policy level, leading mining enterprises are encouraged to go global for mergers and acquisitions, expand their overseas resource reserves, and strengthen the independent controllability of the supply chain. As a result, from the end of 2025 to the beginning of 2026, domestic state-owned enterprises involved in the non-ferrous metal industry have made intensive adjustments. Three major central mining enterprises—China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group, China Minmetals Corporation, and China Rare Earth Group Co., Ltd.—have completed asset restructuring, stripped off inefficient assets, integrated resources at home and abroad, and built a complete industrial chain covering exploration, mining, smelting and trade. Their core goal is to compete for the global pricing power of key minerals such as copper, cobalt and rare earths, so as to resolve the risk of overseas raw materials being "bottlenecked".
In recent years, driven by the global energy transition and national strategies for the security of critical mineral resources, Chinese-funded mining enterprises have significantly accelerated the pace of overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&A) of copper resources. A wave of concentrated M&A deals has emerged from 2025 to 2026, with relevant projects mainly distributed in traditional cooperation regions such as Latin America, Africa, and Central Asia.
According to the 2024 Fraser Institute survey, Namibia ranks as the fourth most attractive mining investment destination in Africa. Among them, the country's mining industry contributes approximately 50% of merchandise exports and 12% of GDP.
This is thanks to Namibia's political stability, sound legal system, institutional safeguards including an independent judiciary, and its openness to investment, which together constitute the favorable conditions for the country to attract foreign capital.
In the second half of 2025, Shenmai Mining obtained the exclusive mining and operation rights for the Opuwa Copper Mine project. In April 2026, the first batch of 22 tons of high-grade copper ore was transported to Qinzhou, Guangxi for delivery. The copper grade reached 7.08%, and it also contains associated valuable metals such as silver and gold, making it a typical high-grade, easy-to-explore copper polymetallic ore.
In August 2024, Sinomine Resources fully acquired the established Tsumeb Smelter in Namibia, which possesses advanced technology for processing complex copper concentrates and stores a large amount of germanium-zinc slag containing valuable copper metals in its yard. The first-phase pyrometallurgical production was put on trial with ignition in December 2025. Relying on this smelter, the company can meet the processing demand of surrounding copper mines and open up the industrial chain of "copper ore - smelting - high value-added products". Recently, Chinalco acquired a majority stake in Celsius Resources and secured the cobalt-copper project in the Opuwo area of Namibia, laying out the critical mineral resources associated with copper and cobalt to meet the raw material demand of China's new energy industry.
But localisation requirements have become increasingly stringent in recent years, and when renewing mining concessions, companies are usually required to transfer 5% to 15% of their equity to local entities. In May 2026, Namibia listed graphite and manganese on its strategic minerals list, with exports requiring special permits. The policy uncertainty of the Namibian government has caused the country's investment attractiveness index to drop from 66 in 2024 to 56 in 2025.
In other copper resource distribution areas, the mergers and acquisitions of Chinese enterprises are also continuing to expand.
In 2025, Baiyin Nonferrous Metals completed the acquisition of Brazil's MVV Serrote Copper Mine for 420 million US dollars, further expanding its copper resource layout in the Latin American region. Minmetals Resources, a subsidiary of China Minmetals, completed the acquisition of the project for 1.875 billion US dollars. This is the largest overseas copper mine merger and acquisition by Chinese enterprises since 2018, and also the largest single investment by Chinese enterprises in Botswana at present. From December 2025 to January 2026, China Nonferrous Mining, a subsidiary of China Nonferrous Metals Group, acquired a 55% stake in Kazakhstan's SMMinerals for 89 million US dollars. The project was successfully completed and closed on March 20, 2026, and will subsequently support the doubling of the company's own copper mine production capacity.
Overall, Chinese enterprises' mergers and acquisitions of copper resources are mostly concentrated in the Belt and Road Initiative partner countries. Relying on the years of in-depth local cooperation foundation and diplomatic support, the operational stability of the projects after their implementation has been continuously improving.
Relevant institutions predict that overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&As) of copper mines by Chinese enterprises will enter a new stage of strategic upgrading, steady and controllable development in the future. They will further focus on traditional cooperation regions such as the African Copper Belt, the Andean Copper Belt in Latin America, and Central Asia. Relying on the foundation of joint construction and cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, geopolitical risks will be reduced. The selection of resource countries will tend to those with long-term and stable cooperative relations with China. Capacity expansion-oriented M&As led by leading enterprises such as Zijin Mining and China Molybdenum Co., Ltd. will accelerate, further consolidating their position as the global core supplier of copper resources, matching more than 50% of the country's refined production capacity, and building a complete closed loop of the entire industrial chain. The M&A model will no longer rely solely on full acquisition, but form a combined model of "acquiring mature operating mines + carrying out greenfield investment to layout long-term projects + cooperating with joint ventures to reduce risks". Interests of resource countries will be bound through methods such as joint venture development to reduce the resistance of project implementation. Meanwhile, mature projects "near commissioning" will be prioritized.
Chinalco's overseas layout continues to expand
China Aluminum Xiong'an Mining Co., Ltd. is the "integral part" of China Aluminum Group's "one integral, two wings" overseas layout. It is responsible for overall strategic planning, capital operation, risk control and international team management. It has no independent overseas assets and does not directly hold mine equity. Instead, it serves as the main platform for China Aluminum Group to acquire and develop overseas resources and a global investment management center. It leads the decision-making and operation of overseas projects, and controls and coordinates the Group's mineral resource layout in Africa (Guinea), South America (Peru) and potential Southeast Asia/Surinam.
Relevant data shows that China Aluminum Corporation currently has 5 overseas mining projects (2 in production, 1 under construction, 2 under feasibility study/exploration), distributed in three countries: Guinea, Peru and Suriname. Its commissioned core assets include the Bauxite Mine Project in Boffa, Guinea and the Toromocho Copper Mine in Peru. Among them, China Aluminum holds an 85% stake in the Boffa Bauxite Mine Project in Guinea, and plans to launch the third phase of expansion in 2026 to raise the annual production capacity to 20 million tons, ensuring the self-sufficiency of raw materials for China Aluminum's Southwest Alumina Base. The Toromocho Copper Mine in Peru is one of the top 30 operating copper mines in the world with an average grade of 0.48%, and the research on deep resources in the third phase is currently scheduled to start in 2026.
During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Chinalco Group will continue to implement the "two-wheel drive" resource layout. In terms of bauxite, it will take Boffa in Guinea as the main base, and form an equity production capacity of 25 million tons per year by 2029, accounting for more than 25% of China's seaborne bauxite imports.
In terms of green, low-carbon development and ESG, the Bofan Project strives to achieve 100% diesel replacement (LNG + photovoltaic microgrid) by 2026; the Toromocho Copper Mine will fully adopt renewable energy for power supply by 2028. By 2029, Chinalco plans to invest a total of 300 million US dollars in community and infrastructure construction to ensure the sustainability of the international financing for the projects in Peru and Guinea.
At present, CHALCO has formed a "double granary" pattern of tens of millions of tons of bauxite and 200,000 tons of copper ore overseas through the model of "independent development + infrastructure sharing + equity cooperation".
Going forward, Chinalco will target countries such as Brazil as key destinations for overseas resource expansion, and maintain high-frequency interactions with the Brazilian government and enterprises to lay the groundwork for potential resource acquisition or cooperative development in the future.
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