China Molybdenum’s corporate anthem needs an update. Its current theme — the sun rising over the hills of Luoyang — is now much less global than the company itself. Over the weekend, the Hong Kong and Shanghai-listed company, with a market value of $7.5bn, said that it had a deal to buy assets from Anglo American and Freeport-McMoRan for $4.2bn. Yesterday, the Hong Kong shares opened after a week’s suspension. They rose 8 per cent.

The new assets are transformational. Last year, China Moly (usually referred to as CMOC) earned more than half of its revenues and three-fifths of its gross profit from molybdenum and tungsten, elements used in making steel and alloys. Copper accounted for most of the balance. Freeport-McMoRan’s Democratic Republic of Congo copper and cobalt assets alone will nearly quadruple CMOC’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. Its copper reserves and resources will septuple. The company’s reliance on steel will be significantly reduced, but it is not simply shifting towards copper. Cobalt is used in rechargeable batteries — such as those used in electric vehicles — and the Anglo American assets include minerals for use in fertilisers.

Even amid the steel downturn, CMOC can afford the purchases. It has net cash of more than $700m. Last year, despite falls of 30 per cent in the prices of molybdenum and tungsten (and 20 per cent in copper) it managed a net profit and positive operating cash flow. It has enviably low operating costs; just above $4/lb in moly, far lower than the $7/lb achieved by num-ber one producer Freeport-McMoRan.