Philippa Malmgren, president of London-based Canonbury Group and a global consultant with Deutsche Bank, said that as China's demand for natural resources grew, so too would its insistence on controlling the global supply chain.

China's Minmetals last year acquired most of the worldwide assets of OZ Minerals, including the Century zinc and copper mine in Queensland and the Sepon copper and gold mine in Laos.

Minmetals has also expressed interest in acquiring further Australian mining projects.

''What we see in China is huge focus on controlling the supply that it needs,'' Dr Malmgren told an MLC investment conference yesterday.

As China built up its transport infrastructure, including an aggressive rail expansion, demand for raw materials would be substantial, she said. This had prompted some sovereign wealth funds, including Chinese funds, to take a closer look at directly controlling the resources needed to support their growth.

''If they could own your mines, they will do it and cut you out of the price action,'' Dr Malmgren said. ''Australia gains by saying, 'No, you can't own the mine' - that lets you keep a margin.

''[If] you start selling underground mines, then you lose the cash flows.

''You'll start to see much more competition for the ownership of those resources and I fully expect China to continue on the path of owning everything it could possibly own. That means less supply that's available to the global economy.''

Dr Malmgren's comments follow Australia posting its lowest current account deficit in more than eight years, helped by high export prices and booming volumes.

The June-quarter current account deficit was $5.64 billion, well down from a revised deficit of $16.457 billion in the March quarter, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show.

Dr Malmgren said investments by China in debt-heavy nations, including Greece and Spain, in recent months were a step towards securing a foothold across Europe.