Empowerment, Sinosteel Style

(Johannesburg) - Meeting financial and regulatory conditions brought China's Sinosteel close to securing majority control of a South African mining concern.

Then came the hard part: The company had to negotiate a potential minefield of social and legal issues tied to the legacy of South Africa's apartheid regime.

Zhang Suwie, president of Sinosteel South Africa, led the successful talks with authorities in the country's northern Limpopo Province for a majority in ASA, the chromite ore mining concern Sinosteel now co-owns with the government's Limpopo Development Corp. (LimDev).