China Minmetals
China Minmetals Corporation is a Chinese state-owned metals and minerals group. It holds a 15-year International Seabed Authority (ISA) exploration contract for polymetallic nodules, signed on May 12, 2017, over 72,745 km² of reserved-area blocks in the Pacific Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ). The contract sits with the unlisted state parent, not with any of the group’s listed companies. The deep-sea program is run by its Changsha research subsidiary CRIMM.
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Overview
- Founded in 1950. A central state-owned enterprise under the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council.
- The group told the ISA in June 2024 that it owns 38 mines at home and abroad, with tungsten, crystalline graphite and bismuth reserves among the largest in the world and copper, zinc, lead and antimony reserves in the first rank.
- China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) was folded into China Minmetals in December 2015.
- The ISA Council approved its polymetallic nodule application on July 20, 2015. That made Minmetals the first Chinese enterprise to obtain an international seabed area; China’s earlier contracts are held by the state research body COMRA.
- The exploration contract was signed on May 12, 2017, in Beijing, on the eve of the Belt and Road Forum, and runs to May 11, 2032.
- The approval carries a preferential right to move to mining in the blocks once a commercial code is in place.
The ISA contract
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Location | Polymetallic nodule reserved areas in the eastern Pacific CCZ, in 8 sub-blocks |
| Area | 72,745 km² |
| Signed | May 12, 2017, for 15 years to May 11, 2032 |
| Sponsoring state | China |
| Minerals | Polymetallic nodules carrying nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese |
The deep-sea program
- June 2016: the lifting pump piping system for deep-sea mining completed its first sea trial.
- August to December 2017: the group’s first international seabed survey voyage to the contract area, organized by CRIMM.
- Further cruises to the contract area ran in 2022, 2024 and 2025, alongside training berths for ISA-selected candidates from developing states in 2018, 2021 and later programs.
- April 2024: stakeholder consultation opened on the environmental impact statement for a prototype nodule collector vehicle test in Block A-5 of the contract area, at depths of 5,000 to 5,500 meters.
- May 2025: the ISA told the group its Legal and Technical Commission had finished reviewing the statement and recommended it be incorporated into the program of activities. Minmetals describes it as China’s first approved test statement and the world’s fifth.
- July to October 2025: the test window for the collector vehicle, with CRIMM as the lead implementing unit. The test was scheduled for October 2025 and did not take place.
- On December 15, 2025, the group told the ISA that extreme sea conditions had damaged the collector vehicle and prevented its deployment to the seabed. The vehicle was recovered with no adverse impact on the marine environment, and the sea trial was postponed by one year.
- Neither the group nor the authority has since published a date or a result for the rescheduled trial.
- April 2026: the group founded its Deep-Sea Resources Development Committee at a meeting held at CRIMM in Changsha.
Ownership
China Minmetals Corporation is wholly state-owned through SASAC. Within the group, CRIMM, the Changsha Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, is the wholly owned subsidiary that carries the deep-sea mining work, and the ISA contract is held at the parent level.
Listed exposure
There is no China Minmetals ticker, and the ISA contract is not held by a listed company. The group’s flagship listed arm is MMG Limited (HKEX: 1208), the Hong Kong listed base metals miner it controls through a Hong Kong subsidiary, with mines including Las Bambas in Peru, Kinsevere in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Khoemacau in Botswana and Dugald River and Rosebery in Australia. MMG carries no interest in the seabed contract, so its shares are exposure to the group, not to the nodule program. Other listed units of the group include Metallurgical Corporation of China (SSE: 601618, HKEX: 1618) and Minmetals Development (SSE: 600058).