Chinese businessmen look for mining investments

Two groups of Chinese businessmen separately visited the country early this month to look for mining investments, documents from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau showed. One business delegation was led by Zong Qinghou, chairman of the beverage conglomerate Whahaha Group, Ltd. and China's 13th richest person. Bureau officials briefed his group on mining prospects here. The visit by Mr. Zong's delegation was an offshoot of a Board of Investments mission to China in August 2009 to promote the Philippines as an investment destination, the Mines bureau said. Meanwhile, 14 Chinese officials led by Jiang Daxin, director of the Bureau of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of China, visited the country on Dec. 4. China, the top nickel user in the world, gets the bulk of its nickel requirements from the Philippines. From January to July, China imported 55% of its of 47.8-million metric ton demand for refined nickel ore from the Philippines, data from the Chinese Embassy showed. Early this month, Chinese mining giant Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd. said it wanted to take over Australian miner Indophil Resources NL's stake in the $5.2-billion Tampakan copper and gold project in South Cotabato. The Chinese miner as offered to buy the stake for A$545 million (about $498 million). The Philippines is said to be sitting atop $1 trillion worth of unexplored gold, copper, silver and nickel resources. — Neil Jerome C. Morales, BusinessWorld