Aluminum Corporation of China Ltd.,
also known as Chalco, has ended its bid to acquire Mongolia-focused coal
producer SouthGobi Resources Ltd., the deal”s would-be seller, Turquoise Hill
Resources Ltd., said Monday.

The acquisition would have
significantly enlarged China”s role in its landlocked neighbor”s critical
resources sector, but ran aground because of political opposition in Ulan Bator
and China”s economic slowdown.

SouthGobi Chief Executive Officer
Alexander Molyneux told Dow Jones Newswires on Friday he believed the deal
wouldn”t be concluded since Chalco hadn”t contacted SouthGobi for more than a
month.

“Turquoise Hill and Chalco have
concluded that the proposed transaction has minimal prospect of obtaining the
necessary regulatory approvals within an acceptable timeframe,”
Mongolia-focused miner Turquoise Hill said in a statement.

The Chinese metals major was to have
taken over Turquoise Hill”s majority stake in SouthGobi for $920 million. The
deadline for Chalco”s offer was set to expire Tuesday. Chalco wasn”t
immediately available for comment Monday.

Dow Jones Newswires