Aluminium Corporation of China's relationship with its Government is impeccable. The man who heads Chinalco, which yesterday carried out the largest corporate share raid in Britain, won promotion late last year as an alternate member of the Communist Party's powerful Central Committee, effectively numbering him among the country's 300 or so ruling elite.

Xiao Yaqing, the Chinalco president, is not yet 50 but he is regarded as one of the bolder and more ambitious executives at the head of a state-owned giant.

He was appointed chairman of the country's largest alumina and aluminium producer in 2004 and swiftly began an overseas shopping spree, buying into metals assets to feed China's voracious hunger for industrial raw materials.

He heads Chinalco and Chalco, its listed arm, which runs its premium alumina and aluminium plants in China and has a market capitalisation of $50 billion (£25 billion).

Chinalco's record of overseas acquisitions has been better than that of China's big state oil companies, whose attempts have triggered protectionist anger, particularly in the United States.

It bought Peru Copper for $800 million last June and has moved forward on a $2.5 billion bauxite development in Australia. Last year it agreed to build an aluminium smelter costing $3 billion in Saudi Arabia, in conjunction with the Saudi Bin Laden Group.

In addition, it is developing a bauxite deposit in Brazil and is in talks with the authorities in Vietnam on bauxite and alumina refining projects.

Mr Xiao said that the decision to take a stake in Rio Tinto was based on commercial considerations, but the acquisition had been completed with Chinese government approval.

The Chinalco chief has almost certainly taken less high-profile decisions without the go-ahead of senior mandarins in Beijing. However, an investment as sensitive as that in Rio Tinto, one bound to attract worldwide attention, could not have taken place without a nod at the very highest level of government and party.

The professor-level engineer with a degree in pressure processing has made clear that the Chinese giant that he heads is still on the prowl for attractive overseas investment targets. Some analysts have said that he would like to see Chalco as the Chinese equivalent of the giant BHP Billiton.

The company was formed seven years ago when Beijing split up a state-owned conglomerate that had managed all its base metals operations. It produced more than 12 per cent of the world's alumina last year and nearly a tenth of its aluminium, feeding China's booming manufacturers of everything from aircraft to cars to drinks cans.

Its revenues reached 131.7 billion yuan (£9.3 billion) last year, up

24.1 per cent from the previous year, with profits of more than 20 billion yuan. In 2007, Chinalco produced 10.46 million tonnes of alumina, 2.56 million tonnes of aluminium ingots and 798,000 tonnes of aluminium products.

Leaders - Market shares

Iron ore

Vale (CVRD) 33.1%
Rio Tinto 22.3%
BHP Billiton 13.7%
Kumba 4.0%

Primary aluminium

RusAl 11%
Rio Tinto 11%
Alcoa 10%
Chalco 6%
Hydro 5%
BHP Billiton 4%