- CATL has tapped Chen Jinghe, founder and former chairman of Zijin Mining, as an adviser for its mining business.
- Chen, a geologist, built Zijin Mining into one of the world's largest mining companies over the past three decades.
Chinese EV battery giant CATL has tapped Chen Jinghe, founder and former chairman of Zijin Mining, as an adviser for its mining business, according to multiple media reports.
The 69-year-old executive, who officially retired on January 1 this year, will serve as a senior adviser to help the company expand its mineral supply chain business, local media Yicai reported on Tuesday.
In recent years, to secure the supply of key upstream resources and materials needed for battery production, CATL has participated in the investment, construction, and operation of mineral resources such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and phosphorus through various means, the report noted.
Chen, a geologist, led Zijin Mining's global operations for more than three decades.
He took the company from a small gold operation in China to one of the world's largest diversified miners with a market capitalization of more than $120 billion, Bloomberg noted in a report on Tuesday.
Upon his departure from Zijin Mining, Chen said the massive company should transition from being founder-driven to being driven by a modern corporate system.
Chen was also officially appointed in February as the chief adviser to Hong Kong-listed Wanguo Gold Group to lead a strategic development committee, Bloomberg noted.
CATL has been broadly expanding its global mineral footprint and key materials investments for much of the past decade.
It has acquired substantial equity stakes in several overseas operations and expanded its own lithium projects domestically in China to hedge against extreme price volatility in the supply chain.
The company is the world's largest EV battery supplier, holding a 42.1% global market share in the January-February period, according to the latest data released by South Korean research firm SNE Research on April 7.
