China Metallurgical Group Corp. has decided to bid for $800 million worth of zinc assets being sold by Anglo American PLC (AAL.LN), a company official said Tuesday.

"We've been talking with Anglo American on this for about two years, and eventually decided to bid for the assets," said the official, who declined to be named.

The official also said the zinc assets include some mines that won't yield much capacity, but "the whole package is really appealing to us. If we did acquire Anglo's zinc assets, it would provide quality raw material for our zinc smelting plant."

China Metallurgical Group is the parent company of Metallurgical Corp. of China Ltd. (1618.HK) and owns Huludao Zinc Industry Co. (000751.SZ), a major zinc smelter.

The move signals a move by Chinese state-owned mining and metal companies to be self-sufficient in resources overseas despite rising global commodity prices, as China becomes an increasingly important player in the global commodities market.

Other potential bidders include private equity giants Apollo and First Reserve, Vedanta Resources PLC (VED.LN) and Canadian miner HudBay Minerals Inc. (HBM.T), according to a report.

-Yue Li contributed to this article; Dow Jones Newswires; (8621) 6120 1200; yue.li@dowjones.com
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