Internationalization of nonferrous metals enterprises is an important way to optimize resources allocation in a world scale, as well as a strategic decision to realize their own sustainable development. This paper has analyzed the development status of internationalization of Chinese nonferrous metals enterprises from four following perspectives: types of international resources acquisition, evolution of international investment location, innovation of international operation and degree of internationalization. In doing so, it aims to identify development gap between Chinese nonferrous metals enterprises and large foreign ones. The paper has therefore raised four key issues for attention: 1) a single motive of internationalization has caused disintegration of national resource security and enterprises growth; 2) weak risk management capacity calls for improvement in decision-making and implementation capability for overseas mining projects; 3) lacking of strategic coordination among enterprises leads to difficulties in gaining from collaboration.4) due to imbalance in dual obligations’ constrain and motivation, it is desirable to tolerate failures of overseas mining projects at a certain level for the governance of national assets.