Speaking in an interview with Mining Weekly Online, Montrusco Bolton Investments fund manager John Goldsmith called Jaguar’s high-cost gold assets, located in Brazil, “mediocre”, reflecting a similar view to other analysts.

Various media houses in mid-November reported Chinese State-owned Shandong Gold Group had offered to buy the company for $1-billion, all quoting anonymous sources.

This was followed by Jaguar CEO Daniel Titcomb’s hasty exit last week, announced in a brief statement.

Goldsmith likens the potential Shandong-Jaguar deal to another China-Canada transaction earlier this year, in the oil and gas sector, where state-owned Sinopec bid C$2.2-billion for TSX-listed Daylight Energy in October.

Both deals would be relatively “insignificant” for the Chinese acquirers, other than to test whether the Canadian government would approve them, he said.

“It’s like a poker game, where you don’t mind losing $10 to see if the next player is going to block you,” Goldsmith commented.

For perspective, Shandong has a market capitalisation on the Shanghai exchange of RMB49-billion. Its reported bid for Jaguar is $1-billion.

Daylight’s buyer Sinopec is one of China’s biggest companies, with a market value of nearly RMB700bn.

Goldsmith’s point is neither deal moves the proverbial needle by much.

Though it happened seven years ago, the Chinese still clearly recall when the Canadian government block China Minmetals Corp’s attempt to purchase Noranda, then one of Canada’s biggest miners.

There has also been talk that the Chinese were desperately trying to find favour in Ottawa for a counterbid for Potash Corp, the subject of a $40-billion bid from BHP Billiton last year. Industry Canada ended up slamming the door on the world’s biggest miner in any case.

Since the failed Noranda acquisition, China has had to settle as a financial partner in Canada’s resources for the most part, said Goldsmith.

“Now they want to operate.”