Ottawa’s policy of preventing Chinese companies from investing in Canadian-owned critical minerals projects may be put to test after a Vancouver-based miner appointed a Chinese firm to help it sell either all or a portion of a copper project it owns in Ecuador.
Solaris Resources Inc., which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and has a market cap of around $800 million, appointed Beijing-based China International Capital Corp. Ltd. to assist in “fielding and evaluating the merit” of proposals it has received from parties interested in its Warintza copper project in southeast Ecuador.
“Warintza is a very special asset,” Richard Warke, Solaris’s executive chairman said in a statement on Oct. 3. “(It) has the potential to create tremendous long-term value … by unlocking one of the last major greenfield districts at low elevation and adjacent to infrastructure in the global copper industry.”
Analysts following Solaris said the appointment suggests the miner is open to potential investments from Chinese companies, but others say this kind of deal could trigger a review by the federal government under the Investment Canada Act (ICA).
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