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The 'mining industry merger king' makes another move, Luoyang Molybdenum Industry wins four gold mines in Brazil for 1 billion US dollars

Click： Time：2025-12-18 11:25:36

Following the successful acquisition of Ecuador's Kagehaus gold mine in April this year, Luoyang Molybdenum Industry has disclosed a major investment plan. On December 15th, Luoyang Molybdenum Industry announced that it will acquire 100% equity of Canadian mining company Equinox Gold's four gold mine assets in Brazil for a total consideration of $1.015 billion.

It is understood that this year is a crucial year for Luoyang Molybdenum Industry to accelerate the layout of global high-quality assets and strategic resources. In the first half of the year, Luoyang Molybdenum Industry underwent a major management adjustment and introduced several senior executives with rich experience in overseas mergers and acquisitions, once again embarking on its overseas asset acquisition journey. The acquisition of Brazilian gold mining assets is another major strategic layout of Luoyang Molybdenum Industry in gold resources. If the transaction is successfully completed, its annual gold business output will increase by about 8 tons.

Get rid of difficulties and successfully go public

Luoyang Molybdenum Industry is a large-scale global non-ferrous metal mining enterprise with business covering multiple continents, and is in a leading position in the industry worldwide. In 2007, the company was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and in 2012, it landed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, completing the layout of 'A+H' dual listing.

Based on the current revenue scale and total assets of Luoyang Molybdenum Industry, it is difficult to imagine that it was once a company on the brink of bankruptcy. The predecessor of Luoyang Molybdenum Industry was a small molybdenum beneficiation plant established by the former Ministry of Metallurgy in Luanchuan County, Luoyang City, Henan Province. Luanchuan County is located in a mountainous area with abundant mineral resources, especially the world's third largest and Asia's largest proven reserves of molybdenum ore. This provided unique resource conditions for the predecessor of Luoyang Molybdenum Industry.

From 1996 to 2002, the prices of molybdenum both domestically and internationally remained low, leading to insufficient market demand and difficulties in selling the company's products, resulting in a sharp decline in revenue and operational difficulties. In 2004, Hongshang Group increased its capital to the company by approximately 137 million yuan and assumed the responsibility of replacing employee restructuring status, obtaining 49% equity and becoming the second largest shareholder; The State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Luoyang City holds 51% of the shares through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Luokuang Group, and is the actual controller. This capital increase not only injects development funds into the enterprise, but also optimizes the equity structure, laying the foundation for subsequent capitalization operations.

In 2007, the global capital market was in a bull market atmosphere, and Luoyang Molybdenum Industry seized this favorable opportunity to promote its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. On April 26th of the same year, Luoyang Molybdenum Industry successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. On the first day of listing, the company's stock price performed exceptionally well, closing at HKD 10.82 per share, a significant increase compared to the IPO price of HKD 6.8, making it one of the new stocks with the highest first day increase in the Hong Kong stock market in 2007. After going public, its stock price continued to rise, and by October 2007, the company's total market value had exceeded 90 billion Hong Kong dollars. With this listing, Luoyang Molybdenum successfully opened up a channel to connect with the international capital market, accumulating important capital foundation for subsequent overseas mergers and acquisitions and business expansion.

Activate the 'Buy Buy Buy' mode

Since entering a benign development track, Luoyang Molybdenum Industry has achieved a leap from a domestic molybdenum and tungsten enterprise to a global comprehensive mining group through a series of acquisitions. Especially after the A-share listing, the acquisition activities have become increasingly intensive, covering multiple mineral fields such as copper cobalt, niobium phosphorus, nickel cobalt, gold, etc., and have also been included in the world's top metal trading platforms.

In December 2013, Luoyang Molybdenum Industry acquired an 80% stake in the North Parkes Copper Gold Mine (NPM) in Australia for $820 million, marking the company's first large-scale overseas mineral acquisition and accumulating preliminary experience in overseas project operation and management for its subsequent global mineral layout.

Although the asset was sold in December 2023 and is no longer included in the company's consolidated financial statements, the mine is the fourth largest copper gold mine in production in Australia, bringing stable copper and gold production to Luoyang Molybdenum Industry.

In October 2016, Luoyang Molybdenum Industry invested 1.5 billion US dollars to acquire the niobium and phosphorus businesses located in Brazil under the globally renowned large mining company Anglo American Resources Group. This acquisition has made Luoyang Molybdenum the world's second-largest niobium producer and its first foray into the agricultural resource phosphate fertilizer business, forming a cash flow business complementary to metal cycle fluctuations.

In November of the same year, Luoyang Molybdenum Industry acquired the copper and cobalt businesses located in the Democratic Republic of Congo, owned by the world's largest copper listed company, Free Port Group, for $2.65 billion. Public information shows that the TFM mining area is one of the largest and highest grade copper cobalt mines in the world. Through this acquisition, Luoyang Molybdenum has opened the door to the African mineral market, acquired the mining rights of TFM mining area, rapidly expanded its copper cobalt business, and become an important global copper cobalt producer.

In April 2017, Luoyang Molybdenum Industry invested an additional $1.1 billion to acquire a 24% stake in TFM's copper cobalt business in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After the completion of this acquisition, Luoyang Molybdenum's shareholding in TFM has increased to 80%, further strengthening its control over the core copper cobalt asset.

In October 2018, Luoyang Molybdenum Industry acquired 100% equity of IXM for approximately 518 million US dollars, achieving an extension into the metal trading business. It is reported that IXM is the third largest metal trading platform in the world. This acquisition has established a dual wheel drive model of 'mining+trade' for Luoyang Molybdenum Industry, greatly expanding the company's global sales network and industrial chain influence.

It is worth mentioning that the acquisition of IXM is a crucial step in the integration of the industrial chain. As the world's third-largest metal trader, IXM's business covers 62 countries and its annual metal trade volume exceeds 5 million tons. This acquisition makes Luoyang Molybdenum the only Chinese enterprise to have access to a world-class metal trading platform.

In 2019, Luoyang Molybdenum Industry acquired a 30% stake in the Huayue Nickel Cobalt project in Indonesia. Nickel cobalt is the core raw material for new energy power batteries, and this acquisition is an important layout for Luoyang Molybdenum Industry to enter the field of new energy minerals, which is in line with the overall trend of the development of the new energy industry.

In 2020, in order to replenish copper cobalt reserves, Luoyang Molybdenum Industry introduced a strategic partner company to acquire 95% of the shares of Kisanfu (KFM) copper cobalt mine for $550 million, and subsequently sold 25% of the shares to CATL for $137.5 million. Not only has it further enriched the company's resource reserves in the copper cobalt field, but it has also introduced leading enterprises in the new energy industry as strategic partners, creating conditions for collaborative cooperation in the subsequent industrial chain.

In April 2025, Luoyang Molybdenum Industry completed the acquisition of Lumina Gold, a Canadian listed company, and subsequently acquired 100% equity of the Kegehaus Gold Mine in Ecuador. The gold mine is a porphyry type mine with advantages such as large reserves and shallow burial. It is expected to be put into operation in 2028, with an annual output of about 11.5 tons of gold, marking the company's official large-scale entry into the gold field.

Intensify gold business

Luoyang Molybdenum Industry has been making continuous purchases, directly driving the company's assets and revenue to leapfrog growth. After completing the IXM acquisition in 2019, the company's total assets exceeded 120 billion yuan. Compared to the initial stage of international expansion in 2013, its operating revenue will increase by 38.48 times in 2024, and its net profit scale will also rise from 1 billion yuan to 10 billion yuan.

From a business perspective, the acquisition has transformed Luoyang Molybdenum Industry from an initial focus on domestic molybdenum and tungsten business to a global mining group with operations in multiple regions including Asia, Africa, and South America. By acquiring the niobium phosphorus business in Brazil, we have become the world's second-largest niobium producer; Acquiring TFM and KFM copper cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, establishing a leading global position as a copper cobalt producer; Acquiring gold mining assets in Ecuador and Brazil has completed the gold business map; By acquiring the Huayue Nickel Cobalt project in Indonesia and entering the field of new energy minerals, coupled with the IXM trading platform, a diversified and high value-added mineral portfolio has been formed, including copper, cobalt, niobium, phosphorus, nickel, gold, etc., effectively dispersing the risk of single metal price fluctuations.

The acquisition of Equinox Gold, a Canadian mining company, for $1.015 billion in four gold mining assets located in Brazil is another increase by Luoyang Molybdenum in the gold field. It is reported that the four gold mines include Aurizona gold mine, RDM gold mine, and two gold mines included in the Bahia comprehensive mining area. The four gold mines hold a total of 5.013 million ounces of gold resources, with an average grade of 1.88 grams per ton; The gold reserves are 3.873 million ounces with an average grade of 1.45 grams per ton. The asset's gold production will reach 247300 ounces in 2024, with a production guidance of 250000 to 270000 ounces in 2025.

Luoyang Molybdenum Industry stated that the gold assets traded in this transaction have a grade higher than the global average level of gold mines in production; Based on the current amount of resources, the company is expected to achieve long-term mining. In addition, this is an operating asset that can be directly consolidated once reviewed and delivered by relevant departments in China and Brazil.

This is also a crucial step for Luoyang Molybdenum Industry to implement the 'copper gold bipolar' investment and acquisition strategy. Previously, the company had firmly held a leading position in the copper cobalt field, and through two large-scale acquisitions of gold mining assets this year, the gold business has rapidly grown into one of the core sectors parallel to the copper business.

At present, the development momentum of the gold industry is strong, and the market attention and value recognition of gold assets continue to rise. Luoyang Molybdenum Industry has intensively deployed high-quality gold mining assets, which is in line with the global capital market's preference for stable mineral assets.