China’s second-largest state-owned gold mining company Shandong Gold has won a bidding war to gain control of Australian gold miner Cardinal Resources. This comes after Five Eyes’ partner Canada blocked Shandong from acquiring a local mine in the strategically important Arctic Circle. Over a seven-month period, the state-owned Shandong Gold vied mainly with Russian firm Nordgold for control of Perth-based mining company Cardinal. In June, Cardinal was valued at 46 cents per share. However, by last week Shandong finalised a deal to buy the company for over AU$580 million at $1.075 per share, providing a substantial windfall to shareholders. In the process, Shandong won a four-way tug-of-war between itself, Nordgold, Emirati-Russian group Dongshan, and the Ghanaian Engineers and Planners. The successful acquisition of Cardinal will give Shandong control of two gold mining projects in the upper-eastern region of Ghana in West Africa. Despite ongoing concerns over Chinese investment, Shandong received …