(Yicai) March 8 -- Chinese miner Sinomine Resource Group plans to acquire a copper smelting plant in Namibia for USD49 million to further develop its copper mining business.

Sinomine’s unit in Hong Kong will buy a 98 percent stake in Dundee Precious Metals Tsumeb from Canadian miner Dundee Precious Metals, the Beijing-based parent company announced today, citing a deal its unit signed with the Canadian firm yesterday.

The main asset of DPMTH is a smelter in Tsumeb, Namibia, that is among the few in the world able to process high arsenic-bearing copper concentrate, Sinomine said. The plant can process 260,000 tons of such copper concentrate a year, but the figure is expected to reach 370,000 tons after a technological renovation, the firm added.

Copper is a key raw material for the new energy industry, as it is used in the photovoltaic energy, wind power generation, and electric car fields, Sinomine said, noting that the acquisition can provide new growth points for the sustainable development of the company’s mining business.

Founded in 1999, Sinomine mostly develops and uses resources such as lithium, cesium, and rubidium. It does business in over 40 countries and regions worldwide, having set up subsidiaries in Canada, the US, the UK, Norway, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, and Uganda, according to its website.

Sinomine’s net profit widened only 1 percent to CNY2.1 billion (USD292.1 million) in the first three quarters of last year from the previous one, mainly because of the falling lithium-ion battery material prices in China, the company said in its latest earnings report. Revenue fell 8.8 percent to CNY5 billion. In 2022, Sinomine’s net profit and revenue skyrocketed 486 percent and 233 percent, respectively, from 2021.

Sinomine’s shares [SHE: 002738] closed 1.8 percent up at CNY35.93 (USD5) in Shenzhen today.

Editor: Futura Costaglione