Chengtun Mining wrapped up 500 million yuan acquisition of Nzuri Copper

SHANGHAI, Mar 17 (SMM) – Chinese miner Chengtun Mining Group said last week that its subsidiary Xuchen International has finally wrapped up the acquisition of copper and cobalt explorer Nzuri Copper.

Xuchen acquired Nzuri’s 100% shares for A$114 million (about 50 million yuan) in cash, according to the statement by the Shanghai-listed Chengtun. Nzuri entered into a binding takeover agreement with Chengtun Mining in February 2019.

ASX-listed resources company Nzuri owns two copper-cobalt projects—Kalongwe and Fold & Thrust Belt JV., in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Kalongwe has obtained exploitation license and finished feasibility study, while the 334 km2 Fold & Thrust Belt JV. Project is still in the stage of exploration.

Chengtun expects the Kalongwe project to reach an annual capacity of 1 million mt ore, 22,600 mt of copper and 3,700 mt of cobalt after construction is completed. This will bring the proportion of Chengtun’s cobalt production to total global production in cobalt raw materials to 2.8%, compared to a ratio of 0.49% in 2019.