In the summer of 2023, Rothschild bankers working for Zambia’s government were close to finalising a shortlist of buyers for a prized copper mine.
Mopani, a troubled but rare asset formerly owned by resources giant Glencore, had drawn offers worth hundreds of millions of dollars from big names in the mining world eager to gain access to a metal that is crucial to clean energy technologies of the future.
The list had been narrowed down to China’s Zijin Mining and South African deep-level excavation expert Sibanye-Stillwater when seemingly out of nowhere came a third contender: an obscure company from the United Arab Emirates called International Resources Holding.
But behind the scenes IRH’s parent, International Holding Company, the $240bn business empire of powerful Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, had been courting the highest levels of Zambia’s government for nearly two years.
By December, IRH had agreed to buy a 51 per cent stake in the mine for $1.1bn and overnight became the industry’s fastest-moving newcomer in decades. “What stood out . . . was their intention to invest in the mining industry,” says a Zambian official who was among those tasked with nurturing the budding relationship. “They were head and shoulders above in terms of what they were able to facilitate.”
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