Metals miner MMG keeps eye out for overseas acquisitions as it tackles mine blockades in Peru

MMG, the overseas mining unit of state-owned China Minmetals, will press on with its goal to rank among the world’s “top mid-tier” mining firms by next year despite the challenges it faces in Peru, its most profitable market, said its chief executive.

To realise the target it first unveiled in 2014, the Hong Kong-listed firm will keep an eye out for potential acquisition targets in the mining hot spots of South America, Africa and Australia, said Geoffrey Gao Xiaoyu, who took the helm last August.

“We have delivered a large part of that growth through the commissioning of Las Bambas [a copper project in Peru] and Dugald River [a zinc project in Australia],” he said in an interview after delivering his first annual results as chief executive.

“This year is the 10th anniversary of MMG [as a listed firm], we will have new goals for the next five to 10 years and definitely growth will still be a very important part of our story.”

Former chief executive Jerry Jiao Jian told the Post last July that MMG considered firms with market capitalisation of US$10 billion to US$15 billion to be “mid-tier” players. MMG’s market value stood at US$3.9 billion at Thursday’s market close.

After spending a total of US$10 billion on the half-finished Las Bambas in 2014 to bring it to production, and US$1.3 billion to make Dugald River operational last May, highly-leveraged MMG has been paying down its debt. its net debt fell US$733 million to US$7.6 billion last year.