China Minmetals

China Minmetals was founded in 1950. Originally focused on trading steel and metals, the company expanded into mining, engineering, and real estate through several waves of reform and acquisition.

In 2015, China Minmetals acquired China Metallurgical Group Corporation, a state-owned engineering and mining group, as part of the Chinese government's state enterprise reform and consolidation strategy.

Since 2022, the company has maintained operations in Russia despite international sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine, drawing global scrutiny.

China Minmetals Corporation oversees one of the most extensive mining portfolios among Chinese state-owned enterprises. Its activities span Asia, Oceania, Africa, and the Americas, and involve more than 38 mines, 15 of which are large-scale operations. The group produces copper, zinc, nickel, cobalt, lead, iron ore, alumina, and rare earth elements, and conducts most of its overseas mining through the Hong Kong-listed subsidiary MMG Limited. Outside MMG, Minmetals holds a majority interest in the Ramu Nickel–Cobalt Mine in Papua New Guinea through its wholly owned arm MCC; the operation yielded 28,669 t of nickel and 2,625 t of cobalt in 2024.

In an example of a major domestic project, in September 2024 the company launched a ¥10 billion joint venture in Qinghai province to build a lithium- and potassium-extraction hub at the Qinghai Salt Lake, marking Minmetals' formal entry into battery-materials production.

The group is also pursuing future-facing minerals on the ocean floor: in May 2017 Minmetals International Mining Co. signed a 15-year contract with the International Seabed Authority to explore polymetallic nodules in the Clarion–Clipperton Zone of the Pacific.