Apple says it has told suppliers to stop buying minerals from Congo
Apple's statement came in response to a criminal complaint filed earlier in the day against the company in France and Belgium.
While most of the global gold industry is retrenching, one of China’s leading producers continues to eye big global growth.
State-owned Zijin, formed in 1993, has been looking abroad for gold and copper acquisitions for more than a decade, but has been a very active buyer over just the past few years.
In December 2014, the company unveiled an $81 million investment in Canadian miner Pretium Resources Inc. And in May of last year, Zijin announced two very big investments in Canadian companies. It gave Barrick Gold Corp. US$298 million for a stake in the Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea, and gave Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. US$412 million for a stake in the Kamoa copper project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Those transactions instantly made Zijin a significant global player.
