At the end of April, Metal Bulletin asked which company would be most likely to pick up Xstrata’s stake in the Las Bambas copper project in Peru, after the Chinese ministry of commerce stated it must be sold in order for the merger with Glencore to proceed.
The results of the poll are now in. More than 100 respondents took part, with the clear favourite being Minmetals, which received just shy of 30% of the vote.
Jinchuan came in second, with about 23% of the vote, while 19% of respondents thought a Western miner might be interested.
Chinalco came in next, with 17% of the vote, while the more noncommittal among the respondents made up the remaining 11%, believing another unnamed company could be in the running.
Metal Bulletin set the poll up before speculation emerged suggesting that Mick Davis, whose flagship project Las Bambas was when he was running Xstrata, might be interested in acquiring the asset.
