Mining giants join forces to create new industry behemoth

China Minmetals Co, one of the country's largest mining groups by asset value and overseas projects, merged with China Metallurgical Group Co on Thursday, creating a new conglomerate bigger than the asset value of any of the three global giant mining companies - BHP Billiton Ltd, Rio Tinto Group and Vale SA.

After the merger, China Metallurgical, the largest metallurgical engineering contractor and service provider in the country, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of China Minmetals. The company will no longer be directly administered by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

Before the merger, China Minmetals had overseas operations in 34 countries and regions.