Hanlong Mining Investment Pty Ltd signed yesterday a subscription agreement with Australia's Moly Mines Ltd to become the controlling shareholder of the Australian company.

Hanlong Mining is an Australian subsidiary company wholly owned by a privately run Chinese corporation - Sichuan Hanlong Group Ltd.

Following a US$200 million investment in Moly Mines' stock, Hanlong will become the controlling shareholder with a 55.3 percent stake in the company.

Hanlong will also provide US$500 million in project financing to develop the Spinifex Ridge Molybdenum Copper mine, which is wholly owned by Moly Mines.

The investment will require final approval from the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board and relevant Chinese authorities prior to completion.

This acquisition is the second major overseas acquisition for Hanlong Group, which previously invested in mining developments in Africa.

Hanlong Group Board of Directors representative Liu Han said it is significant for a privately held Chinese company to have gained approval to develop a mine in Australia.

Moly Mines's Chief Operating Officer Collis Thorp said the project is ready to develop as most of the engineering and budget work has been done.

"It would take us 18 months to 21 months to construct the mine and this agreement will facilitate that," Thorp said, adding that in two years the project should be in full production.

Sichuan Hanlong Group has a wide portfolio of investments including electricity production, infrastructure development, mining resources development, pharmaceutical production, food and alcoholic beverages.

Moly Mines is dual listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange and wholly owns the Spinifex Ridge Molybdenum Project located in Western Australia.

The project is the only large-scale molybdenum and copper resource to be discovered worldwide since 1982.

Currently confirmed reserves at the project are 350,000 tons of molybdenum and 500,000 tons of copper with further potential for increasing these figures.