General Moly
尤里卡北部的希望山。中国企业家刘汉是这里一个13亿美元钼矿项目的主要出资人。
（编者按：本文原文发表于2012年12月28日）
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64年，银矿勘探者、赌徒和冒险家们建起了以矿产闻名的小镇尤里卡(Eureka)，不过迄今为止，尤里卡还是头一次迎来刘汉这样的淘金者。刘汉是一名低调的中国商业大亨，也是尤里卡北部希望山(Mount Hope)山顶爆破这一13亿美元项目的主要出资人，爆破山顶是为了开采一种叫做钼的金属矿藏。希望山毗邻内华达中部的驿马快信线路(Pony Express Trail)，拥有世界最大的未开发银白色金属钼矿。钼可以提高用于核电厂管道等高端设备的钢铁的硬度。
美国土地管理局(Bureau of Land Management)上个月批准了这处矿产的运营，该机构批准的项目将让刘汉成为全球钼贸易中举足轻重的人物。现年46岁的刘汉喜欢开快车，喜欢对大宗商品大胆押注。内华达的采矿交易和刘汉在澳大利亚类似的钼矿开采活动凸显出，崭露头角的中国民营部门投资者突然有了在整个行业呼风唤雨的实力。
The Wall Street Journal
刘汉。照片摄于2010年。
伦敦CRU Strategies的高级顾问、钼专家拉扎尔(Ionut Lazar)说，汉龙集团在美国、澳大利亚和中国的项目有可能对钼价产生影响。
很少有投资者像刘汉这样富有传奇色彩。2010年12月，刘汉在中国西南部成都市的汉龙办公室附近罕见地接受了采访，抵达现场的刘汉开着一辆法拉利(Ferrari)，肩上披着一件貂皮大衣。尽管汉龙的投资在采矿领域一直受到密切关注，矿业大亨刘汉却很少接受采访，最近也多次回绝了为了解其最新动向提出的采访请求。
刘汉最近在大宗商品领域押注了科罗拉多的上市公司General Moly Inc.，后者是尤里卡附近矿产的控股股东和管理者。汉龙最终将投资8,000万美元，其中后一半款项将在未来几个月付清，这笔交易让汉龙获得了General Moly超过30%的股权。汉龙已经承诺将为采矿工程安排和保证高达7.9亿美元的融资，这些融资主要从中国的国有银行获得。
General Moly的首席执行长汉森(Bruce Hansen)8月份接受采访时说，开采过程可能从2015年开始，汉龙已经同意购买开采出的大部分矿产。
汉森说，植被稀疏的希望山山坡下面的钼矿，可能是世界最大的未开发钼矿。General Moly估计，希望山中已证实和可能存在的钼矿规模达13亿磅（约合590,000吨）。
在2010年接受采访时，刘汉竭力证明他是一位以赚钱为目的的商人，而不是奉中国政府之命行事。在一顿有鸽吞翅的午餐期间，刘汉将自己描绘成白手起家的富豪、国际自然资源市场的生力军。
中国国有企业的海外投资、特别是自然资源投资长期备受争议。外国政府担心这些自然资源最终帮助了一个经济对手、甚至是军事对手。最近，加拿大政府批准中国国有企业收购能源公司Nexen Inc.，但表示不太可能批准国有企业的其他收购。据分析师说，中国民营企业有时候也跟政府过从甚密。
刘汉两年前说：政府支持、帮助、协调企业的发展，我们企业依法经营、纳税，政府依法监管，就是这样一种关系。在说这番话时，刘汉的助手为他点燃又一支熊猫牌香烟。
刘汉是在经过一番曲折之后投资通用钼业的。在2009年钼价下跌之后，他接触澳大利亚现金紧缺的矿企Moly Mines LLC.，很快达成一笔以2亿美元收购该公司55%股权的交易。
这个消息让通用钼业感到振奋。汉森在2010年的那次采访中说：在2009年11月，我们注意到以前从没听说过的汉龙公司公布了针对通用钼业的这笔投资。
通用钼业找到了刘汉，汉龙在当月就提出收购要约。汉森回忆说，他们当时相对直接地说，我们要的是拥有通用钼业的较大权益，同时我们会提供你们所需要的资金。
Corbis
内华达州以矿产闻名的小镇尤里卡已经吸引了中国商业大亨的兴趣。照片摄于1936年。
刘汉体格强壮、充满个性魅力，但在中国不是非常有名。中国国内媒体对他的报道主要跟他资助农村中小学有关。刘汉说他出生于四川广汉的教师家庭，在四川大学学习企业管理。
根据汉龙集团的网站介绍，刘汉是成立已有15年的汉龙公司的创始人。汉龙集团资产规模超过30亿美元，其中包括中国水电大坝、天然气分销网络和多条主要公路等。刘汉说，他20多岁时在重庆做钢管贸易起家。刘汉说他人生的第一桶金是这样赚来的：他买入一堆钢管，然后在附近的大宗商品交易所售出，因此获利人民币500万元。刘汉在2010年的采访中说，他在混乱的市场利用扭曲的价格很快赚到数百万美元。
刘汉说，他在1997年曾做过一笔高粱期货贸易，这笔交易最终令一位名叫袁宝�的东北亿万富豪损失惨重。刘汉说，后来他在四川一家酒店门口亲眼看到一名持枪歹徒朝他停放的汽车开火。没有受伤的刘汉说，他不清楚谁该为此负责。
法庭文件显示，袁宝�随后因为与枪击事件有关的一宗雇凶杀人案被判有罪，并于2006年被执行死刑。刘汉在2010年说，我从中得出的结论是，莫作恶，否则此生会遭惩罚。
除了汉龙集团，刘汉还同一家名叫四川宏达股份有限公司(Sichuan Hongda Co., 简称：宏达股份)的化工企业存在关系。宏达股份的年收入接近7亿美元，由刘汉的表兄弟经营。汉龙公司文件有时将刘汉称作宏达股份的高管或重要股东。宏达股份是中国西南地区最大的企业之一。
刘汉在2010年接受采访时曾说，他是在上交所上市的宏达股份的创始投资人，但几年前他将自己所持的三分之一股份卖掉。宏达股份对此不予置评，该公司和汉龙集团共享办公楼层。
刘汉的堂兄刘沧龙的化肥帝国在1979年中国市场化改革之初是靠着一小笔政府投资逐渐壮大起来的。如今刘沧龙已经成为中国西南地区中共政权的坚定支持者，也是一位具有影响力的实权人物，他曾任中共领导的商会组织中华全国工商业联合会的副主席。
但刘汉则试图淡化自己同中国政府的联系，他在2010年接受记者采访时指出自己并非中共党员。通用钼业公司的监管备案文件称刘汉持有香港特区护照，而不是中国内地居民。
在2010年那次采访中被问及对钼矿市场的信心时，刘汉在驾驶他那辆黑色法拉利飞奔而去之前说出了以下经过仔细斟酌的话：刘汉从来都是赢家，刘汉从不失手。
James T. Areddy
（本文版权归道琼斯公司所有，未经许可不得翻译或转载。）
Silver prospectors, gamblers and adventurers founded this mining town in 1864, but Eureka has never seen a fortune-hunter quite like Liu Han.
Mr. Liu, a little-known Chinese business mogul, is the primary financier for a $1.3 billion plan to blast the top off a hill called Mount Hope just north of Eureka to remove its lode of metal called molybdenum. Mount Hope, adjacent to the old Pony Express Trail in central Nevada, holds one of the world's biggest undeveloped deposits of the silvery element moly, used to harden steel for advanced applications such as piping for nuclear-power plants.
The Bureau of Land Management last month authorized the mine to operate, greenlighting a project that promises to make Mr. Liu -- a 46-year-old who likes driving fast cars and making bold commodity bets -- a powerful voice in global moly trade. The Nevada mining deal -- along with a similar moly play by Mr. Liu in Australia -- illustrates how a budding class of Chinese private investors suddenly has the wherewithal to upend entire sectors.
Mr. Liu's backing for the Eureka project through his closely held company Sichuan Hanlong Group has drawn little notice outside the industry, which dug an estimated $2.2 billion worth of moly out of 10 U.S. mines last year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Ionut Lazar, a senior consultant and moly specialist at CRU Strategies in London, said Hanlong's U.S., Australia and China projects have the potential to influence moly prices.
Few investors cut a more swashbuckling profile than Mr. Liu, who arrived for a rare December 2010 interview near Hanlong's offices in the southwestern Chinese city Chengdu driving a Ferrari and with a mink coat draped over his shoulders. Though Hanlong's investments are closely followed in mining circles, the tycoon Mr. Liu has rarely been interviewed and declined repeated requests recently to provide updates to his views.
Mr. Liu's latest commodities play is publicly-traded, Colorado-based General Moly Inc., the controlling shareholder and manager of the mine near Eureka. Hanlong will ultimately invest $80 million, with the final half due in coming months, giving it just over a 30% stake in General Moly. It has pledged to arrange and guarantee up to $790 million in mine financing, largely through Chinese state-owned banks.
Once mining begins, probably in 2015, Hanlong has agreed to buy most of the output, General Moly's chief executive, Bruce Hansen, said in an August interview.
Mr. Hansen said that underneath Mount Hope's sparsely forested slopes lies 'one of the largest -- if not the largest -- undeveloped moly deposits in the world.' General Moly estimates Mount Hope has 1.3 billion pounds of proven and probable reserves of moly.
In the 2010 interview, Mr. Liu took pains to prove his credentials as a private businessman who is out for profit and isn't doing the bidding of the Chinese government. Over a lunch featuring pigeon stuffed with shark fin, Mr. Liu described himself as a self-made tycoon and budding force in global natural-resources markets.
Overseas investments by China's giant state-owned enterprises have long been controversial, especially in the natural-resources sector. Foreign governments worry that natural resources could end up helping a rival economy, or even military power. Most recently, the Canadian government approved the purchase of energy producer Nexen Inc. but said it was unlikely to approve other deals by government-controlled companies. Private companies in China sometimes have close ties to the government, according to analysts.
'The [Chinese] government supports, helps and coordinates the development of enterprises,' Mr. Liu said two years ago as an aide lit him another of his Panda brand cigarettes. 'We enterprises operate and pay tax in accordance with the law. And the government regulates according to the law. That is the relationship.'
Mr. Liu's investment in General Moly came through a circuitous route. After moly prices fell in 2009, he approached a cash-strapped Australian miner, Moly Mines LLC. and quickly struck a deal to pay $200 million for 55% of the company.
General Moly was energized by the news. 'In November '09, we saw Hanlong, who we never heard of before, announce this investment into Moly Mines,' General Moly's Mr. Hansen said in the 2010 interview.
General Moly tracked down Mr. Liu and by month's end Hanlong made an offer. 'They were relatively direct in saying, 'What we'd like to do is have a significant position in General Moly itself, and we'll provide the financing you need,' ' Mr. Hansen recalled.
Now, key permits are in place to begin mine construction in Eureka but moly prices have slid to the 'undervalued' point that enticed Mr. Liu to invest in the first place. In Australia, Mr. Liu has delayed an investment into a mine company there, citing slow progress with Chinese banks to complete financing. Also, Australia's securities regulatory agency is pursuing insider-trading charges against a small group of former Hanlong employees in that country; the agency hasn't alleged illegal activity by Hanlong, which says it condemns insider trading.
Brawny and engaging, Mr. Liu isn't well known in China, where references to him in domestic media are mostly related to his patronage of rural schools. Mr. Liu says he was born to teachers in the city of Guanghan, in Sichuan province, and studied business management at Sichuan University.
Hanlong's website describes Mr. Liu as the founder of the 15-year company, which boasts more than $3 billion in assets, including Chinese hydropower dams, natural-gas distribution networks and major highways. Mr. Liu says he got his start trading steel pipe in the city of Chongqing when he was in his 20s. For his first big deal, he says he bought a stockyard of pipe and sold it at a nearby commodity exchange for a profit of five million yuan, nearly $800,000. Mr. Liu said in the 2010 interview he took advantage of price distortions in the chaotic marketplace and quickly earned millions of dollars.
Mr. Liu said that he made a 1997 trade in sorghum futures that turned out to be very unfavorable for a billionaire from China's northeast named Yuan Baojing. Later, Mr. Liu watched from a Sichuan hotel entrance as a gunman opened fire on his parked car, he said. Mr. Liu, who was unhurt, said he had no idea who was responsible.
Mr. Yuan was subsequently found guilty of a murder connected to the shooting, according to court documents, and executed in 2006. 'My conclusion is, do no evil or you will be punished in this life,' Mr. Liu said in 2010.
Apart from Hanlong, Mr. Liu is also affiliated with a chemical company with nearly $700 million in annual revenue called Sichuan Hongda Co. that is run by his cousin. Hanlong company documents sometimes identify Mr. Liu as a senior executive or key shareholder of Hongda, one of southwest China's largest companies.
Mr. Liu said in 2010 he was a founding investor in Shanghai-listed Hongda but years ago sold his one-third stake. Hongda, which declined to comment, shares an office block with Hanlong.
Mr. Liu's cousin, Liu Canglong, owes his fertilizer empire to a small amount of government investment at the dawn of China's market reforms in 1979. Today he is a stalwart of Communist Party politics in southwestern China and an influential power broker as deputy chairman of the party-affiliated business group All-China Federation of Industry & Commerce.
But Mr. Liu plays down his own links to China's government, pointing out in the 2010 interview that he isn't a party member. General Moly regulatory filings refer to Mr. Liu as a Hong Kong passport holder, rather than a mainland China citizen.
Asked in 2010 about his confidence in the moly market, the tycoon offered choice words before roaring off in his black Ferrari: 'Liu Han always wins. Liu Han never loses.'
James T. Areddy
Mr. Liu, a little-known Chinese business mogul, is the primary financier for a $1.3 billion plan to blast the top off a hill called Mount Hope just north of Eureka to remove its lode of metal called molybdenum. Mount Hope, adjacent to the old Pony Express Trail in central Nevada, holds one of the world's biggest undeveloped deposits of the silvery element moly, used to harden steel for advanced applications such as piping for nuclear-power plants.
The Bureau of Land Management last month authorized the mine to operate, greenlighting a project that promises to make Mr. Liu -- a 46-year-old who likes driving fast cars and making bold commodity bets -- a powerful voice in global moly trade. The Nevada mining deal -- along with a similar moly play by Mr. Liu in Australia -- illustrates how a budding class of Chinese private investors suddenly has the wherewithal to upend entire sectors.
Mr. Liu's backing for the Eureka project through his closely held company Sichuan Hanlong Group has drawn little notice outside the industry, which dug an estimated $2.2 billion worth of moly out of 10 U.S. mines last year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Ionut Lazar, a senior consultant and moly specialist at CRU Strategies in London, said Hanlong's U.S., Australia and China projects have the potential to influence moly prices.
Few investors cut a more swashbuckling profile than Mr. Liu, who arrived for a rare December 2010 interview near Hanlong's offices in the southwestern Chinese city Chengdu driving a Ferrari and with a mink coat draped over his shoulders. Though Hanlong's investments are closely followed in mining circles, the tycoon Mr. Liu has rarely been interviewed and declined repeated requests recently to provide updates to his views.
Mr. Liu's latest commodities play is publicly-traded, Colorado-based General Moly Inc., the controlling shareholder and manager of the mine near Eureka. Hanlong will ultimately invest $80 million, with the final half due in coming months, giving it just over a 30% stake in General Moly. It has pledged to arrange and guarantee up to $790 million in mine financing, largely through Chinese state-owned banks.
Once mining begins, probably in 2015, Hanlong has agreed to buy most of the output, General Moly's chief executive, Bruce Hansen, said in an August interview.
Mr. Hansen said that underneath Mount Hope's sparsely forested slopes lies 'one of the largest -- if not the largest -- undeveloped moly deposits in the world.' General Moly estimates Mount Hope has 1.3 billion pounds of proven and probable reserves of moly.
In the 2010 interview, Mr. Liu took pains to prove his credentials as a private businessman who is out for profit and isn't doing the bidding of the Chinese government. Over a lunch featuring pigeon stuffed with shark fin, Mr. Liu described himself as a self-made tycoon and budding force in global natural-resources markets.
Overseas investments by China's giant state-owned enterprises have long been controversial, especially in the natural-resources sector. Foreign governments worry that natural resources could end up helping a rival economy, or even military power. Most recently, the Canadian government approved the purchase of energy producer Nexen Inc. but said it was unlikely to approve other deals by government-controlled companies. Private companies in China sometimes have close ties to the government, according to analysts.
'The [Chinese] government supports, helps and coordinates the development of enterprises,' Mr. Liu said two years ago as an aide lit him another of his Panda brand cigarettes. 'We enterprises operate and pay tax in accordance with the law. And the government regulates according to the law. That is the relationship.'
Mr. Liu's investment in General Moly came through a circuitous route. After moly prices fell in 2009, he approached a cash-strapped Australian miner, Moly Mines LLC. and quickly struck a deal to pay $200 million for 55% of the company.
General Moly was energized by the news. 'In November '09, we saw Hanlong, who we never heard of before, announce this investment into Moly Mines,' General Moly's Mr. Hansen said in the 2010 interview.
General Moly tracked down Mr. Liu and by month's end Hanlong made an offer. 'They were relatively direct in saying, 'What we'd like to do is have a significant position in General Moly itself, and we'll provide the financing you need,' ' Mr. Hansen recalled.
Now, key permits are in place to begin mine construction in Eureka but moly prices have slid to the 'undervalued' point that enticed Mr. Liu to invest in the first place. In Australia, Mr. Liu has delayed an investment into a mine company there, citing slow progress with Chinese banks to complete financing. Also, Australia's securities regulatory agency is pursuing insider-trading charges against a small group of former Hanlong employees in that country; the agency hasn't alleged illegal activity by Hanlong, which says it condemns insider trading.
Brawny and engaging, Mr. Liu isn't well known in China, where references to him in domestic media are mostly related to his patronage of rural schools. Mr. Liu says he was born to teachers in the city of Guanghan, in Sichuan province, and studied business management at Sichuan University.
Hanlong's website describes Mr. Liu as the founder of the 15-year company, which boasts more than $3 billion in assets, including Chinese hydropower dams, natural-gas distribution networks and major highways. Mr. Liu says he got his start trading steel pipe in the city of Chongqing when he was in his 20s. For his first big deal, he says he bought a stockyard of pipe and sold it at a nearby commodity exchange for a profit of five million yuan, nearly $800,000. Mr. Liu said in the 2010 interview he took advantage of price distortions in the chaotic marketplace and quickly earned millions of dollars.
Mr. Liu said that he made a 1997 trade in sorghum futures that turned out to be very unfavorable for a billionaire from China's northeast named Yuan Baojing. Later, Mr. Liu watched from a Sichuan hotel entrance as a gunman opened fire on his parked car, he said. Mr. Liu, who was unhurt, said he had no idea who was responsible.
Mr. Yuan was subsequently found guilty of a murder connected to the shooting, according to court documents, and executed in 2006. 'My conclusion is, do no evil or you will be punished in this life,' Mr. Liu said in 2010.
Apart from Hanlong, Mr. Liu is also affiliated with a chemical company with nearly $700 million in annual revenue called Sichuan Hongda Co. that is run by his cousin. Hanlong company documents sometimes identify Mr. Liu as a senior executive or key shareholder of Hongda, one of southwest China's largest companies.
Mr. Liu said in 2010 he was a founding investor in Shanghai-listed Hongda but years ago sold his one-third stake. Hongda, which declined to comment, shares an office block with Hanlong.
Mr. Liu's cousin, Liu Canglong, owes his fertilizer empire to a small amount of government investment at the dawn of China's market reforms in 1979. Today he is a stalwart of Communist Party politics in southwestern China and an influential power broker as deputy chairman of the party-affiliated business group All-China Federation of Industry & Commerce.
But Mr. Liu plays down his own links to China's government, pointing out in the 2010 interview that he isn't a party member. General Moly regulatory filings refer to Mr. Liu as a Hong Kong passport holder, rather than a mainland China citizen.
Asked in 2010 about his confidence in the moly market, the tycoon offered choice words before roaring off in his black Ferrari: 'Liu Han always wins. Liu Han never loses.'
James T. Areddy
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