Australia’s miners are lacking in China intelligence, according to Global Mining Association of China (GMAC) Chairman, Peter Arkell.
Mr Arkell argues that China is a vital partner for Australia, as is mining.
“Where would the Australian economy be today without China and mining?” asked Mr Arkell.
Australia supplies 30percent of China’s ore and metal import requirements, far outweighing the contribution from other resource nations including Brazil, Chile, Peru and South Africa.
China was mostly self-sufficient in minerals up until the early 2000s, according to Mr Arkell, noting that China too has a rich endowment of iron ore, manganese, zinc, rare earths and more.
What happened thereafter can only be described as an “infrastructure boom,” and the demand for resources skyrocketed.
“(When I was living in Shang Hai) I remember that we had a visit from John Howard in the early 2000s. The price of iron ore at the time was US$12 a tonne, and you all know what happened to it after that? It jumped to US$180 per tonne,” said Mr Arkell.
While miners across the world were busy selling their wares to China, others took a different approach – with more than 400 exploration projects taking off in the early 2000s.
ASX-listed Sino Gold sold three of its Chinese operating mines for more than US$1 billion, and TSX-listed Continental Minerals sold its undeveloped Tibet copper project for US$432 million.
While international mining projects in China have tailed off, Mr Arkell sees no signs of an economic slowdown.
“I don’t believe that there will be a hard landing anywhere in the near future. Urbanisation is still driving demand.
“A well-developed economy will have about 10percent of its population working on the land in rural areas. In China, around 50percent of the population still lives in rural areas,” Mr Arkell said.
Mr Arkell argues that the population will be able to perform more productive tasks in cities and therefore will increase their contribution to China’s GDP.
Continued urbanisation is not only good news for minerals companies in Australia, but also in China with many domestic companies ranked in the top 50 largest miners including China Shenhua (number four ahead of Brazil’s Vale), China Moly (11) and Tianqi Lithium (33).
While miners in Australia are some of the best in the world, Mr Arkell believes that they are deficient in what he calls CQ or Chinese Intelligence.
“If you look at the boards of companies in Australia, they are sadly lacking in CQ. We would like to see companies far more knowledgeable of what is happening in China,” said Mr Arkell.
矿商仍需认清中国
据中国全球矿业协会(GMAC)主席皮特阿克尔(Peter Arkell)称，澳大利亚的矿业公司缺乏中国的情报.
阿克尔认为，中国是澳大利亚重要的合作伙伴，包括矿业在内。
他询问：“如果没有中国矿业，今天的澳洲经济会是什么样子的。”
中国铁矿石和金属进口的需求有30%来自澳大利亚，远远超过巴西、智利、秘鲁和南非等其它资源国的贡献。
阿克尔表示，直到本世纪初，中国在矿产方面基本上都是自给自足的。他指出，中国也拥有丰富的铁矿石、锰、锌、稀土等矿藏。
此后发生的事情只能被描述为“基础设施繁荣”，对资源的需求直线上升。
阿克尔表示：“(当我住在上海的时候)我记得，在21世纪初，约翰•霍华德(John Howard)来过我们家。当时的铁矿石价格是每吨12美元，你们都知道那之后发生了什么吗? 它跃升至每吨180美元。”
当世界各地的矿商忙于向中国销售产品时，有些矿商采取了不同的方式——在本世纪初，已经启动了400多个勘探项目。
在澳洲证券交易所上市的中国黄金公司以超过10亿美元的价格出售了三家在华运营的金矿，在多伦多证券所上市的大陆矿业公司以4.32亿美元的价格出售了尚未开发的西藏铜矿项目。
尽管中国的国际矿业项目数量有所减少，但阿克尔没有看到经济放缓的迹象。
“我不认为在不久的将来会有硬着陆。城市化仍在推动经济需求。
“一个发达经济体大约有10%的人口将在农村地区的土地上工作。在中国，大约有50%的人口仍生活在农村地区，”阿克尔表示。
阿克尔认为，人口的力量能够给城市带去更高效率的劳动力，从而增加他们对中国GDP的贡献。
持续的城市化不仅对澳大利亚的矿业公司来说是个好消息，对中国来说也是个好消息。中国许多国内企业跻身前50大矿业公司之列，其中包括中国神华(排在巴西淡水河谷之前4名)、中国钼业(11名)和天齐锂(33名)。
尽管澳大利亚的矿商是世界上最优秀的矿商之一，但阿克尔认为，他们在他所说的“CQ”或“中国情报”方面仍存在不足。
“如果你看看澳大利亚的公司董事会，就会发现他们严重缺乏文。我们希望的是看到企业对中国正在发生的事情更加了解，”阿克尔表示。