China’s sovereign wealth fund announced today it would invest $1.5 billion CND in Teck Resources Corp., a leading Canadian minor. The Chinese Class B investment will amount to a 17.2 percent stake in the minor, and give the Chinese 6.7 percent in voting power. The deal will be finalized by July 14, 2009. No other information was released regarding the Beijing investment.

Vancouver-based miner Teck Cominco has just posted a massive Q4 $607 million ($1.28 per share) loss. Revenue in the quarter was up from $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion YoY. The company has been hard hit by one-time charges, write-offs and slumping commodity prices. “Average base metal prices were down significantly from average prices in the fourth quarter of 2007, with two of our major products, copper and zinc, down 45% and 55%, respectively,” said the company. Teck Cominco also wrote down a total of $844 million in goodwill, including on its Fording Canadian Coal Trust acquisition in 2008. Moody’s Ratings lowered its credit rank to Ba3 from Ba1, also giving the company a bad outlook.

Miner Rio Tinto is about to sell a $19.5 billion stake to the Chinese government owned company Chinalco. Rio Tinto will sell $12.3 billion in assets and will rise $7.2 billion by issuing convertible bonds. Rio Tinto is trying to cut massive debt off its balance sheets from the 2007 $38 billion Alcan takeover. The deal is raising concerns because it is the biggest foreign investment a Chinese company has ever made, and Chinalco is a government owned corporation. The deal still needs to be approved by Australian foreign investment regulators.

Toronto-based gold miner and exploration company Kinross Gold has announced US $360 million in new financing from an equity offering led by UBS Securities. The company made 20.9 million shares available for $17.25 a share (about 7% discount). The underwriters can exercise an over-allotment option within 30 days to issue an additional 3.1 million shares. The new capital will be used to fund operations and to fund recent acquisitions, the company said. Kinross most recently acquired Minera Santa Rose SCM for over $250 million in December 2008. Kinross continues to do well, maintaining the number three spot as Canada’s largest gold miner in terms of revenue.

OPTI Canada recently developed a 50/50 joint venture with Nexen Inc. on a $6.1 billion oil deal in the Long Lake Project in the Alberta oil sands. OPTI has now announced it will sell back 15% ($735 million) of its stake to Nexen. Under the deal, OPTI will retain a 35% working interest in the current Long Lake Project and future developments. OPTI also plans to use up $114 million in capital in 2009 ($71 million of that relates to Phase 1 of the Long Lake Project). The deal has not yet been approved. OPTI says if it is not ratified, it will have trouble meeting debt obligations. If the deal is ratified, OPTI will pay off $150 million of its $500 million credit facility. The OPTI stock is down 80% in 2008.

Gold miner Yamana (Canadian based), says it will offer an additional 5.8 million shares, bringing the total to 22.5 million shares under an agreement with Scotia and Canaccord Capital. The shares will be bought for $6 a share by the capital underwriters to be resold to the public in an offering. The funds will be used towards working capital and to support operations. Yamana shares are up from 13% to $358.75 just about 10 min before today’s closing.