China’s fascination with resource-rich Africa’s treasure knows no bounds. If the metal is red, so much the better: China is the world’s biggest consumer of copper. Last week Discovery Metals, whose main asset is a copper mine in Botswana, brushed off a US$850m offer from private equity group Cathay Fortune. The Australian exploration company wisely left the door open for a higher offer. It must recall the generosity of Minmetals Resources, which paid C$1.3bn in February for Toronto-listed Anvil Mining, a miner in Democratic Republic of Congo.
中國對於坐擁豐富資源的非洲礦企的癡迷沒有止境。如果那種金屬是紅色的，那就更好了：中國是全球第一大銅消費國。上週，非洲銅礦商Discovery Metals拒絕了中國私人股本集團鴻商產業控股(Cathay Fortune)發出的金額高達8.5億美元的收購要約。Discovery Metals是一家在澳洲上市的礦企，主要資產是一處位於波札那(Botswana)的銅礦，它明智地爲更高的出價留下了機會。該公司一定是想起了出手闊綽的五礦資源(Minmetals Resources)，後者於今年2月爲收購在剛果(Congo)擁有礦產的多倫多上市銅礦企業Anvil支付了13億加元。