China has established itself as a major player in the global transition towards cleaner sources of energy, not only in mining, but especially in processing and refining. For Chinese companies, governments and communities all over the world, the energy transition brings additional challenges and opportunities. Improving governance of the mining sector and ensuring that business integrity is maintained throughout the value chain is crucial for a sustainable and just energy transition. 

Transparency International’s Accountable Mining Programme (AMP) launched its Chinese Mining Sector Project in 2022 to inform civil society organisations, policymakers and other stakeholders wanting to better understand the overseas-focused Chinese mining sector. This work led to the publication of our 2024 report ‘Digging Deeper: Understanding the Global Chinese Mining Sector’, revealing the growth of Chinese presence and ownership in the global mining sector, and identified at least 81 Chinese mining companies involved in 180 projects globally, not including projects within China. The report highlighted that many of these projects are located in many of the world’s top-producing countries for critical minerals. 

The latest phase of this research features two national-level case studies of minerals commodity value chains to identify key corruption risks and governance weaknesses, and the role that Chinese-owned companies play. The case studies explore the Chinese presence in Zimbabwe’s lithium industry (mining) and Indonesia’s nickel industry (processing) – examining how firms enter the market, regulatory frameworks governing Chinese operations, and key political-economic narratives around Chinese mining-related activities. The two countries were selected given the high level of involvement of the Chinese mining sector in the extraction and processing of transition minerals.