Nevsun Resources of Canada said Tuesday that Zijin has been approved by Chinese and Canadian authorities and plans to buy the Vancouver-based mining company for $1.41 billion. Nevsun said the acquisition approved by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the support of the Canadian Investment Canada Act were the final regulatory conditions for the completion of the deal, which was first announced in September. Zijin Mining's offer was better than London Mining's previous offer and eventually won the deal. In recent years, Zijin has acquired assets from Africa to Australia. In August, the company paid $1.25 billion for a 63 per cent stake in RTB Bor, Serbia's largest copper mining and smelting complex.

The competition among mining companies for Nevsun's stake highlights the importance mining companies attach to copper because of growing demand for power generation and electric vehicles and expectations that demand for copper will significantly exceed supply from 2020.

Nevsun's Timok copper and gold project is also one of the few mining projects expected to be launched in the near future.

According to Colin Hamilton, head of commodity research at BMO's capital markets, the current copper mines, both in quantity and production, are at the lowest level of the century.

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