China Minmetals, a Beijing-based metals and mineral trading company, said on Thursday it had submitted its intention to buy Glencore-Xstrata's Las Bambas copper mine. In the Metal Bulletin copper concentrates conference held in London, managing director Gu Liangmin said, "We have come to the first round of bids for Las Bambas. I can assure that Minmetals is very realistic and all our actions should be rational and not too aggressive. We will be very cautious about our decision. It's unnecessary for Minmetals to buy assets at a crazy price or a price that we believe is not worth it."

Glencore-Xstrata's consolidation had lead the new company to divest its Peru-based asset to meet conditions set by antitrust regulators in China. The Las Bambas mine had attracted companies all over the world, most of them were reportedly from China. Peru's Mines Minister Jorge Merino told reporters, "I cannot give names of companies. But what I can say is that there are companies from many countries - from Australia, from China, Canadian companies, there are also American companies interested in the project."