Minto, Yukon: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Wednesday his government will address the issue of China’s state-owned enterprises buying stakes in Canadian resource companies as it reviews proposed transactions.

Asked by reporters if he was concerned about Chinese investment in northern Canada, Harper said “through the automatic reviews of a couple of ones you’re very familiar with, we will be addressing those very questions.”

Harper’s government is reviewing Beijing-based Cnooc Ltd’s $15.1 billion offer for Calgary-based oil and gas producer Nexen Inc under the country’s foreign-takeover law. The government in 2010 rejected BHP Billiton Ltd’s $40 billion hostile bid for Potash Corp, only the second time Canada had blocked a foreign takeover in 25 years.

Harper, on the second day of a five-day tour of the country’s three northern territories, said “there’s a tremendous economic opportunity here and the fact that we are attracting investment, not just domestically but from around the globe, I think speaks very highly to the great future that our country has.”

Investment from Chinese companies helped push exploration spending in the Yukon to a record last year.

Asian companies have made seven “significant” investments in Yukon-based companies since 2007, Samantha Paterson, communications manager for the territory’s economic-development ministry, said in an e-mail. To be sure, all the investments are smaller than Cnooc’s bid for Nexen.

Chinese Investments

In 2008, Jinduicheng Molybdenum Group Co Ltd and Northwest Non-Ferrous International Investment Co Ltd, both based in Shaanxi province, bought Yukon Zinc Corp.’s Wolverine zinc project in the southeast of the province for C$101 million ($102 million).

Yunnan Chihong Zinc & Germanium Co. Ltd, based in Yunnan province, formed a joint venture with Selwyn Resources Ltd. in 2010 to invest C$100 million exploring one of the largest undeveloped zinc and lead deposits in the world.

Cnooc last year bought 60 percent of oil and gas explorer Northern Cross (Yukon) Ltd.

Harper on Wednesday also said his government has signed an agreement with Yukon to share royalties from resource development amid a boom in the northern territory’s mining sector.

The pact will give Yukon a greater share of resource royalties, Harper said at a copper-gold mine in Minto, Yukon, owned by Capstone Mining Corp.

Resource Royalties

Yukon will retain 50 percent of resource royalties under the new agreement, up from a maximum of five percent of its gross expenditures, the federal government said.

Harper said taking advantages of the north’s resources will help spur “unprecedented economic development” over the next five years in the region.

“Responsible resource development, is going to be key for many years to come, not just for the northern economy, but for Canada’s economy as a whole,” he said in a speech at the mine.

Mineral exploration spending in the Yukon rose to C$307 million ($312 million) in 2011, topping the previous record of C$157 million in 2010, while the territory’s economy expanded by 5.6 percent, according to government figures. One key challenge is how to ship resources such as gold, zinc and copper out of the remote territory that borders Alaska and is the size of Spain with a population of 35,800.

Harper travels to Norman Wells, Northwest Territories after leaving Yukon.