China’s growing interest in the Canadian mining sector was on display Tuesday when Vancouver’s Hawthorne Gold revamped its management team and changed its name to China Minerals Mining Corp. (TSX-V:CMV).
The changing of the guard signalled the end of a process announced in December, when Hawthorne’s board of directors appointed Shijia Tang, president of Skyocean Ventures Investment, to the board.
Skyocean simultaneously announced a $7.5 million private placement in Hawthorne in December.
Then, in January, chairman Michael Beley and president and CEO Richard Barclay agreed to hand control of the company over to Tang and new director Jian Zhang.
Tang has since been named CEO, and Zhang, the former chairman and president of China Non-ferrous Metal Mining Corp., has been appointed chairman of the junior company’s board.
On Tuesday, Beley was named executive adviser to the chairman while Barclay became an executive vice-president of the company.
The company’s flagship assets are the Table Mountain and Taurus projects, both located in northern B.C.’s historic Cassiar gold mining district.
China Minerals said Tuesday it plans to move Table Mountain toward production this year.
The management change is yet more evidence of China’s increasing focus on the Canadian mining sector, as the Asian nation seeks new resource pipelines to support its emerging economy.
On Sunday, China’s state-owned Minmetals Resources launched a $6.3 billion hostile takeover bid for Toronto’s Equinox Minerals (TSX:EQN).
Last year, the value of Chinese mining equity deals totalled $12 billion, although China lags behind Canada when it comes to global deal making.
The increasing presence of Chinese players in the sector prompted John Nyholt, PwC’s national leader of transaction services, to predict last month that China could assemble the world’s first Chinese-owned diversified mining powerhouse this year.