On the afternoon of December 30, the establishment ceremony of Minmetals Rio Tinto Exploration Company Limited (Hereinafter referred as Minmetals Rio Tinto) was successfully held in Sanya. Mr. Guo Wenqing, China Minmetals' President and Deputy Party Group Secretary and MCC Chairman, and Mr. Tong Daochi, Member of the Standing Committee of Hainan Province and Municipal Party Secretary of Sanya City, attended and unveiled the company. Prior to the ceremony, the two sides held working talks and conducted in-depth exchanges on further deepening strategic cooperation.

Guo expressed his gratitude to the Sanya Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government for its long-standing support to China Minmetals, reviewed the long-term friendly cooperation between the two sides, and introduced the development situation since the strategic reorganization of the former China Minmetals and MCC, two Fortune 500 companies. He pointed out that China Minmetals is the first state-owned capital investment company in the field of metal minerals in China, committed to the acquisition and development of high-quality metal mineral resources. With an asset scale of RMB 2.1 trillion, total assets of nearly RMB 940 billion and 200,000 employees, it strives to become “the Chinese No.1 and a world-class" metal mining group, and shoulders the glorious mission of ensuring the national metal resource supply. China Minmetals has taken the lead in opening up the entire industrial chain layout from resource acquisition, exploration, design, construction, operation to circulation and deep processing in the global metal minerals field, and has strong investment and financing capabilities brought by the advantages of full financial licenses. As the national team of metallurgical engineering, MCC Group covers a global market share of 60% and a national market share of 90%. In addition, it has obvious advantages in municipal engineering and infrastructure construction, especially in Underground Corridor, Beautiful Countryside, Smart City, Wellness Industry etc.

Guo said that China Minmetals attaches great importance to strategic cooperation with Hainan Province and Sanya City, consciously fulfills the responsibility of SOEs, continues to expand cooperation areas, and strives to become the vanguard and main force in the construction of Hainan Pilot Free Trade Zone and Free Port. China Minmetals has attached great importance to the strategic cooperation agreement signed with the People's Government of Sanya City on May 18, 2019, actively responded to the concerns and requirements of the Sanya Municipal Government, and vigorously launched Minmetals Rio Tinto in Sanya. The related preparatory work for landing has efficiently completed including company registration and foreign business filing etc. The successful landing of Minmetals Rio Tinto in Sanya of Hainan will help China Minmetals and Sanya to further explore cooperation potential and expand cooperation space, especially in resource exploration, marine exploration and mining technology research and development, infrastructure construction, municipal engineering, trade logistics and company headquarters and base construction, finance, real estate and health care, where more development opportunities will be nurtured, making greater contributions to the construction of Hainan Pilot Free Trade Zone (Hainan FTZ) with high standards and high quality.

Tong Daochi expressed his sincere welcome to the visit of Guo and his delegation, and appreciated for the long-term support of China Minmetals to the economic and social development of Sanya. He pointed out that Sanya has aimed to build the highest level of open cities in the world today since the construction of Hainan FTZ. With the position of “three zones and one center”(The three zones and one center is to build Hainan into a pilot zone for deepening reform and opening-up on all fronts, a pilot national ecological zone, a major national strategic logistics zone and an international tourism and consumption center.), Sanya has taken tourism as the leading industry, modern service industry and high-tech industry as the dominant ones, striving to explore and innovate, optimize the business environment, actively introduce high-quality enterprises, and promote urban modernization management and industrial transformation and upgrading. Tong said that China Minmetals is the China’s largest and most internationalized metal minerals enterprise group and also the world’s largest and strongest metallurgical construction and operation service provider with both a reasonable diversified asset portfolio and a unique competitive advantage in the entire industry chain. It is hoped that China Minmetals, as the leading and responsible state-owned enterprise, can actively participate in the construction of Hainan FTZ, establish a long-term and stable cooperative relationship with Sanya, and open up more space for cooperation in the areas of resource exploration, deep sea exploration technology research and development, infrastructure and municipal engineering construction, real estate development, finance and wellness, etc. , relying on its advantages in the unique policy, deep sea resources, openness and convenience, and the geographical conditions of Hainan FTZ to jointly achieve mutual benefit and win-win development.

The two sides also held cordial and friendly talks on other topics of common interest.

After the talks, both parties attended the unveiling ceremony of Minmetals Rio Tinto. Guo first watched the introduction exhibition board of Minmetals Rio Tinto's global exploration cooperation project with the guests, and listened to the report of Wang Jionghui, President of Minmetals Rio Tinto, about the company's basic situation, preparation process and construction of mining data sharing platform. Subsequently, Guo and Tong jointly unveiled the Minmetals Rio Tinto. The establishment of the company will realize a strong alliance, build a joint exploration team, explore and discover world-class mineral resources, expand high-quality mineral exploration opportunities, and promote the company's long-term sustainable development in the mining industry in China as well as the data exchange and research will be further strengthened, committed to promoting the technological innovation and research and development, and upgrading the new exploration technologies and methods in China.

Mr. Liu Caiming, China Minmetals' Vice President, Chief Account and Party Group Member, attended the meeting and presided over the unveiling ceremony. Mr. Chen Xiaoya, Member of the Standing Committee of the Sanya Municipal Committee and Secretary General, Mr. Liu Zhaojun, Deputy Mayor of Sanya and Mr. Ren Binyan, President of Rio Tinto China attended the ceremony together with the leaders of the relevant Sanya municipal authority, and the related personnel of Rio Tinto. Other attendees were the leaders from China Minmetals headquarters and the affiliated enterprises including Wang Jionghui, Qu Yang, Liu Fuming, Xue Fei, Zhang Yi, Li Maolin, Huang Dongmei, Wang Feng, etc.