[Exclusive] Half of Moon Administration's Overseas Mines Sold at 'Bargain Prices'... Suffered '54.1 Billion Won' Loss

Analysis of Overseas Mine Sales from 2017 to 2021
Losses at Chile Copper Mines Reach 130 Billion KRW
Moon Administration's Policy to Sell All Mines Labeled as 'Corruption'
Losses May Increase Due to Inclusion of Key Advanced Industry Minerals

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Hyun-ji] It has been revealed that half of the overseas mines sold by the Moon Jae-in administration over the past five years were sold at a ‘bargain price’ that did not even cover the investment amount. Some mines were sold off recovering only 1.15% of the investment. As the government hastily withdrew from overseas resource development, the loss amounted to 54.1 billion won.

According to data on the ‘Annual Overseas Mineral Resources (Mines) Sales Status in the Last Five Years’ submitted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to Koo Ja-geun, a member of the National Assembly’s Industry, Trade, Resources, Small and Medium Enterprises Committee from the People Power Party, the Korea Mine Reclamation Corporation recovered 594.48 billion won by selling stakes in six overseas mines during the Moon Jae-in administration from 2017 to 2021. Among these, half of the sales amounts were less than the investment costs, resulting in losses.

The mine with the largest loss was the Santo Domingo copper mine in Chile, with losses exceeding 100 billion won. Last year, the corporation sold its 30% stake in the Santo Domingo mine for 219.49 billion won. Considering the investment amount (349.45 billion won), the loss amounted to 129.96 billion won. The limestone mine in Zhangjiahong, China, recovered only 1 billion won out of an investment of 2.17 billion won, less than half, and the Shakespeare copper mine in Canada invested 2.4 million dollars (34.7 billion won) for a 0.06% stake, but the sale price was only 30,000 dollars (40 million won).

The absurdly low sale prices were largely influenced by the Moon Jae-in administration’s mine sale policy. When public enterprise debts increased due to failures in overseas resource development projects promoted during the Lee Myung-bak administration, the Moon administration labeled resource development as a ‘deep-rooted evil’ and decided to sell all overseas mines. The Korea Mine Reclamation Corporation hurried to sell at prices far below the investment amount to reduce debt.

Considering that these mines contain key mineral deposits, the losses could be even greater. Copper, which accounts for 60% (4 out of 6) of the sold mines, is a core material for national advanced and strategic industries such as semiconductors and secondary batteries, but the domestic self-sufficiency rate is close to zero. Continued supply shortages could negatively impact the development of future growth industries.

Concerns are further heightened by the fact that foreign companies from Canada, China, and Australia purchased the stakes sold by the corporation. Amid intensifying resource weaponization by various countries, this cannot avoid criticism of national wealth outflow. Lawmaker Koo Ja-geun pointed out, "The Moon Jae-in administration politically exploited overseas resource development following nuclear power, blocking the nurturing of future growth industries and missing timely investment opportunities to secure energy resources and expand supply chains."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.