China Update
Published by MAC on 2007-05-28
China update
28th May 2007
Indonesia and Cambodia have become new targets for Chinese mining and metallurgical companies – joining current exploration and joint ventures in Australia, Vietnam, Peru, Burma, South Africa, Tibet and elsewhere. Russia is also in-line, both as a source of future resources and a potential partner in domestic Chinese projects.
A report released in early May by five Northern-based NGOs reveals some disturbing information about Chinese banking in "unsustainable" projects around the world. One of the report's five contributing organisation is MAC-member group, the Mineral Policy Institute of Australia (MPI).
The assembled data highlights the prime role that investment in dubious mines and metals ventures plays for several of China's largest banks; along with two brief case studies on iron ore mining in Gabon and the Ramu nickel project in Papua New Guinea.
Equally, if not more, important is the fact that, among global private lenders, Goldman Sachs, Standard Bank and Barclays Capital seem to have their fingers deepest in this sector.