the chinese are very aware of the quality of qld bauxite. China...

the chinese are very aware of the quality of qld bauxite.

China covets the whole bauxite and dice at Aurukun


June 21, 2008


XIAO Yaqing is a very powerful player in the Chinese resources industry. That is likely to make him an increasingly powerful player in Australia as well.

Mr Xiao, 49, is the chairman of the state-owned aluminium giant Chinalco and its listed subsidiary, Chalco.

Through Chinalco, he took a 9 per cent, $15 billion stake in Rio Tinto last February and would clearly be interested in more - but that is only on the unlikely basis that Canberra would agree.

Not that that would stop Mr Xiao from growing elsewhere in Australia.

Through Chalco, he is also proposing the largest single investment by a Chinese company so far in the Australian resources sector - a $3 billion bauxite mine and alumina refinery in Queensland. And he makes it plain he is extremely keen to expand further in Australian resources and downstream processing.

That will ensure that the federal Government will look very carefully at his proposals as Canberra tries to steer between encouraging valuable foreign investment and development without ceding too much control of Australian resources. It's a giant political and economic game where the rules are still being worked out by both sides.

"In China, Chalco is trying to to acquire as many mining rights as possible and the same thing is true with the rest of the world, including Australia," Mr Xiao told The Australian.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23897216-5013565,00.html