© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, April 7, 2022. REUTERS/Patrick Doyle
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By Divya Rajagopal
TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada will not force Chinese state-investors in three of its large mining companies to divest stakes, as such a move would create policy uncertainty, natural resources minister told Reuters.
In November, Canada had asked three Chinese companies to sell their stakes in Toronto-listed lithium explorers following a national security review, drawing criticism from the mining industry and raising questions about the future of other Chinese investments in Canadian mining sector.
“If you start looking backwards at investments, it will create all kinds of uncertainty about whether an investment is ever really an investment,” Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said in an interview late on Tuesday on the sidelines of Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference in Toronto.
Three of Canada’s largest mining companies – Teck Resources (NYSE:), Ivanhoe Mines (OTC:) Limited and First Quantum Minerals (OTC:) Limited, – count Chinese state-owned enterprises as their biggest single shareholder.
This is the first time Canadian government officials have clarified what the future holds for other Chinese investments in the three Canadian mining companies.
According to Refinitiv data, the sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp owns 10.3% stake in Teck, China’s state-owned CITIC Metal Group owns 26% in Ivanhoe Mines while China’s largest producer Jiangxi Copper Corp Ltd owns 18.3% in First Quantum (NASDAQ:) Minerals.