The company is moving the Valentine gold project forward thanks to new permits and stakeholder agreements.

China spent about $180 billion on iron ore imports last year.

Ganfeng’s Chairman earlier this year visited Xinjiang, where activists say Uyghurs and other Muslim citizens have been subjected to forced labor.

Chinese bureaucrats are proposing that senior leaders should authorize the resumption of coal purchases as tensions between Beijing and Canberra begin to ease.

"The government needs to intervene decisively and swiftly in order to stabilize property and capital market sentiment," said JP Morgan.

Overall, China is at a very different point in its economic cycle to much of the rest of the world, writes Clyde Russell.

Coal output over the first six months of 2022 reached 2.19 billion tonnes, up 11% from the same period last year.

Officials are looking to boost fuel supplies to avoid a repeat of last year’s power disruptions -- particularly ahead of a key party congress.