Author: Graeme Smith, UTS and ANU

With China’s hunger for resources, its mining ventures into the Pacific continue to expand. With the discovery of vast tracts of copper deposits in New Britain, there are likely to be new investments in PNG undertaken by Chinese state-owned enterprises, quite possibly in partnership with Australian mineral exploration companies.

To date, China’s flagship project in the Pacific islands has been the Ramu nickel and cobalt mine, a US$1.4 billion investment in PNG’s Madang province managed by the China Metallurgical Corporation (MCC), in partnership with Brisbane-based Highlands Pacific. Read more…