China Nonferrous to mine more in Africa
China Nonferrous Metal Industry's Foreign Engineering and Construction Co Ltd will keep hunting for overseas mining resources in 2008, a senior executive of the state-owned industrial conglomerate said on Monday.
China Nonferrous would look mainly at the Middle East, especially Iran; at central and north Asia, especially Kazakhstan; and at central and southern Africa, especially Zambia, Wang Hongqian, the firm's general manager, told Reuters.
He said China Nonferrous, an engineering and mining firm, would try to take control of the mines it identified as good investments, but otherwise would take minority stakes.
China Nonferrous has been expanding vigorously overseas.
It said last October it would co-build a 200 000 tons-a-year alumina plant in Iran, where it has already constructed a zinc smelter as well as copper, ferroally and alumina plants. And last September it said it would sell equipment worth $135-million to a Kazakh smelter.
Wang was attending the annual Boao Forum for Asia on China's southern island of Hainan, which took place at the weekend.
Australia, Canada and Latin America were also important for China Nonferrous, he said.
"As for markets like Australia and Canada with mature mining industries, we must get a foothold in order to keep up with international practices," Wang said.
At home, China Nonferrous would spend up to 1,3-billion yuan to expand its zinc refining capacity in Inner Mongolia to 210 000 tons a year, he said. Current capacity is around 110 000 tons.
With the domestic zinc price falling, the company is trying to maintain profits by increasing output and boosting its engineering business, Wang added.
China Nonferrous expected to export to China 120 000 tons of zinc ore from its Mongolian mine in 2008, the same as last year, he said.
Since the mine opened in August 2005, the company has shipped 278 600 tons of zinc ore to China as of the end of March, he added.
