Metorex is a mining company based in Johannesburg, South Africa. It has assets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Zambia and elsewhere. A takeover bid by the Jinchuan Group of China valued the company at US$1.1 billion. Since January 2012, the company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jinchuan Group.
History
The company was founded in 1975 by a consortium that included Anthony Simon Malone, and acquired Rand London Mines. In the following years Metorex acquired additional properties mining a variety of minerals including gold, coal, asbestos, copper, zinc and tin. The mines were located in South Africa, Namibia and Zambia. In December 1999 Metorex merged with Consolidated Murchison and listed on the JSE and LSE exchanges. In the following years the company continued to expand through acquisition of new properties. In 2004 Metorex entered into a joint venture to develop the Ruashi copper mine site in the DRC, and subsequently made substantial investments in this project.
In April 2011 Vale announced that it intended to offer to purchase Metorex at a price of R7,524 million. This was topped by an offer by Jinchuan Group in July 2011 that valued the company at R9,112 million. Jinchuan said it would treat Metorex as a strategic vehicle for expanding its mining presence in Africa.[2] In October 2011 the South African and Zambian competition authorities approved the bid, now worth US$1.1 billion, and the main Zambian and DRC investors approved the deal.