On October 15, as part of the delegation of entrepreneurs accompanying Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on his visit to Bulgaria, a delegation from China Minmetals Corporation led by President Zhou Zhongshu participated in a series of activities held for Chinese and Bulgarian entrepreneurs, and signed a copper purchase contract worth US$800 million. The good results achieved during the visit were acclaimed and affirmed by Vice President Xi Jinping.

On the morning of October 15, accompanied by his Bulgarian counterpart Angel Marin, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping attended a breakfast meeting with the Chinese and Bulgarian entrepreneurs and delivered a speech. Xi noted, "We welcome the Bulgarian enterprises to expand export to China, particularly those of non-ferrous metals, yogurt, wine and rose oil." He put forward a four-point proposal for further advancing trade and economic cooperation between the two countries: further expanding the size of bilateral trade; further broadening areas of cooperation; further improving cooperation mechanism; and further deepening pragmatic cooperation under the Sino-EU framework. During his speech, Xi also made an impromptu comment that trade cooperation conducted by influential central enterprises like China Minmetals sent a positive signal to Bulgaria that China has already made efforts to expand its trade with Bulgaria.

At the breakfast meeting, President Zhou Zhongshu delivered a speech on behalf of delegates from over 100 Chinese enterprises on the visit to Bulgaria. President Zhou stated that with the support of the both governments and the joint efforts of the two sides, the purchase amount of copper products by China Minmetals from Aurubis AD, the largest copper producer in Bulgaria, rose dramatically from US$12.6 million in 2005 to US$45.21 million in 2008. In the first half of this year, against the backdrop of international financial crisis, copper consumption shrank heavily in Western countries, and copper producers were faced with increasing challenges. Nevertheless, the purchase amount by China Minmetals from Aurubis AD grew significantly to a record of US$95 million, which fully indicated that in spite of market fluctuation, the cooperation confidence of our both sides will not waver. President Zhou disclosed that the two companies would sign later that day a long-term agreement with an estimated value of up to US$800 million on the purchase of copper cathode for the term from the fourth quarter of 2009 to 2015.

Subsequently, Chinese and Bulgarian enterprises signed cooperation agreements on trade, investment and financing at the Bulgarian Prime Minister's Office. On behalf of China Minmetals Corporation, President Zhou Zhongshu signed a long-term agreement with the General Manager of Aurubis AD on the purchase of copper cathode, witnessed by Chinese Vice President Xi Jingpin and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov. During the process, Xi asked the Chinese ambassador to Bulgaria to interpret for him that China Minmetals has signed a large purchase deal worth US$800 million. Xi told President Zhou that he did a good job and achieved good results.

According to the National Statistic Bureau of Bulgaria, copper products imported by China Minmetals Non-ferrous Metals represented 37% of the total export from Bulgaria to China from January to July 2009, and import for the full year by the company is expected to account for over 50% of the total export from Bulgaria to China, which will strongly expand the scale of China's trade with Bulgaria and reduce Bulgaria's trade deficit with China.    

Wang Lixin, General Manager, Jiao Jian, Deputy General Manager, Xing Yan, Board Secretary, Gu Liangmin, General Manager of Copper Department, from China Minmetals Non-ferrous Metals, as well as Zhao Yong, General Manager for Minmetals North Europe AB, accompanied President Zhou on the visit to Bulgaria.