China Minmetals Corporation, the nation's top metal trader, is eying iron ore mining projects in the Western African nation of Mauritania to diversify its iron ore supplies, Friday's China Daily reported.

The company has started due diligence of the iron ore projects and hopes to clinch an agreement soon, the newspaper cited vice-president of Minmetals Xu Siwei as saying.

Minmetals' decision to further diversify its raw material sources came after the nation's talks with the world's mining giants for this year's iron ore supplies failed to make headway.

Ore negotiations stalled after BHP and Vale said they had signed short-term deals with their customers and abandoned the annual benchmark pricing system for iron ore.

The three global miners, Vale SA, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, account for nearly 50 percent of Minmetals' iron ore trading volume.

Diversification will not only help in rationalizing the market, but also aid in achieving reasonable prices, the newspaper quoted Yao Jian, a spokesman with the Ministry of Commerce as saying.

Chinese miners will consider more investment opportunities in the higher-risk investment destinations of Africa, Central Asia and Russia as it is difficult to acquire high-yielding mines in low-risk countries like Australia and Canada this year, the newspaper said.