nice to read. 

CALGARY - Chinese companies increased their mining presence in Canada with two separate deals Monday, but experts say fears the resource-hungry superpower is out to gobble up our homegrown industries are unfounded.

Tyler Resources Inc. of Calgary (TSXV: TYS.V) announced Monday it found a white-knight suitor with a $214-million takeover offer from Jinchuan Group Ltd., China's largest producer of nickel, cobalt and platinum group metals and a major producer of copper.

Meanwhile, junior uranium explorer Ditem Explorations (TSXV: DIT.V) said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with a subsidiary of China's Sinosteel Corp., to develop uranium properties in the Athabasca Basin of Western Canada.

"A couple of hundred million dollars is nothing ... If you measure Canada against other industrialized countries we're not doing very well at all," said Wenran Jiang, acting director of the University of Alberta's China Institute.

"To me it looks like the question is not whether we have too much Chinese investment. The issue is actually that we have very little in terms overall size, especially given Canada's position as a resource rich country."

Monday's deals come a month after China Minmetals Corp. and a Chinese copper partner struck a $455 million deal to acquire Vancouver's Northern Peru Copper Corp. (TSX: NOC.TO) after an auction by the B.C.-based miner aimed at developing its Galeno copper project in South America.

Two years ago, MinMentals failed in its bid to buy Toronto-based miner Noranda, before that company merged with its Falconbridge subsidiary and was eventually acquired by Swiss-based Xstrata.

Deep-pocketed Chinese businesses have been investing around the world in oil and minerals sectors to secure supply of raw materials and energy to meet its rapidly growing demand.

In November, China spent nearly US$30 billion on nuclear reactors and passenger jets from France. A year ago China inked a deal worth tens of billions of dollars to buy 20,000 metric tons of uranium starting in 2010.

While those acquisitions dwarf the ones that have been taking place in Canada, Paul Stothart of the Mining Association of Canada said China might look to increase its foothold here as demand for raw materials increases.

"Chinese investment in Canada has been very modest to date, although it is likely that Chinese investors will increasingly examine global investment prospects in Canada and elsewhere over the coming years," he said, noting that in 2006, China bought a quarter of the world's base metals compared to a five per cent share in 1980.

"Given this reality, it is not surprising that Chinese companies have been increasing their international investment over the past few years. Demands on two fronts - to build its own infrastructure and to continue its role as the world's factory - is driving an increased need for mineral resources and metals."

The United States has taken a protectionist stance when it comes to foreign takeovers.

Furor erupted in Congress when China National Offshore Oil Corp. made a US$18.5-billion bid for Unocal. Chevron Corp. ended up buying Unocal for about half a billion dollars less than CNOOC had offered.

In Canada, a government-appointed panel is currently looking into what heightened foreign investment will mean for Canada.

The Mining Association of Canada plans on submitting a paper to the panel urging Ottawa to keep Canada open to foreign investors.

"Foreign investment flows - inward and outward - enhance the access of Canadian businesses to new technologies, to fresh ideas and concepts, and to larger markets and production chains," Stothart said.

University of Alberta's Jiang said there are a lot of misconceptions about China that Canadians need to clear up.

"China is not Singapore. If Singapore comes over to take over Taylor Resources, would people really pay that much attention? Because we know Singapore is not going to have any designs on Canadian sovereignty," he said.

"People have stereotypes about China. China is a communist state in some ways but China is also in the past 30 years rapidly becoming a market economy and people actually realize very little how brutal the market competition in China is ... All of these fears, although they are reasonable, really don't mount a major reason for us to say 'we have to be guarded."'