The visit comes a month after China scrapped quarantine requirements for incoming travelers that had all-but-shut its borders for nearly three years under the country's zero-COVID policy.

Luo Tiejun, vice president of CISA, and Marcello Spinelli, Vale's Executive Vice President for Iron Solutions, attended the meeting on Feb. 7, in which they discussed how to improve iron ore pricing mechanism and to promote low-carbon development.

China, the world's largest steelmaker and iron ore consumer, imported 1.11 billion tonnes of iron ore last year, according to China's customs data.

(Reporting by Siyi Liu and Dominique Patton; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)