Hebei Iron & Steel Group to build non-ferrous metal base with focus placed on developing copper and molybdenum mine

Recently, Jindi Mining Company, a company located in Dawan Mining Area, Laiyuan County, and Hebei Iron & Steel Group formally signed integration agreement and completed asset handover. By the end of the year,the resource integration of the remaining 2 private-owned mining enterprises in the Dawan Mining Area will also be completed, by the time of which the molybdenum mine resources of Dawan Mining Area’ will be changed into assets of Hebei Iron & Steel Group, marking the first step by Hebei Iron & Steel Group to integrate Laiyuan’s mineral resources. After integration, the newly constructed Hebei Iron &Steel Group Laiyuan Non-ferrous Metal Base will fill a void in the lack of non-ferrous industry in Hebei Province, which also signals that Hebei Iron &Steel Group is undergoing a significant transformation from development of singular ore to simultaneous development of multiple ore varieties.

According to chief persons in charge of related departments in the Provincial Department of Land Resources, Laiyuan mineral resources mainly include 220 million tons of molybdenum ore in Dawan Mining Area, 1 million tons copper reserve in Mujicun Mining Area, and large lead-zinc deposits in Lianbaling Mining Area with unproved reserve; furthermore,Dushancheng Mining Area has nearly 500 million tons of iron ore resources in reserve. In order to cultivate new strategic supporting industries of Hebei Province, the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government decided to grant Hebei Iron & Steel Group the mission to integrate and develop Laiyuan nonferrous metal, and construct Laiyuan Metallurgy Industrial Park.

Laiyuan County Dawan Mining Area is regarded as the breakthrough point for this time’s resource integration. Guided by the working approach of “compensating the remaining enterprises with little leftover resources to facilitate their exit, evaluating the remaining enterprises with large resource volume to have their assets priced and converted into shares”, at present 8 private-owned enterprises have signed integration agreement with Hebei Iron & Steel Group and finished asset handover. Tian Zejun, Vice General Manager of Hebei Iron & Steel Group Mining Company, told the reporter that, after acquiring the resources, they will follow the overall guideline of first making breakthrough in Dawan Mine,then tackling Dushancheng immediately afterwards, speeding up handling formalities for Mujicun, comprehensively regulating Zhijiazhuang,and planning and developing Lianbaling, and building up a top class industrial park, in order to spend 3-5 years to build a world top class nonferrous metal industrial base.

It has been learned that, Dawan molybdenum mineral resource is kept under good condition;it is an important national strategic reserve resource. Before the integration, 10 mine owners in the mining area were engaged in excavation to varying degrees, there was chaotic condition in the resource development above 1070 meters altitude, resulting in serious safety hidden hazards,which greatly handicapped safety work in mining area and rational development and utilization of mineral resources, and brought severe pollution and damage to local ecological environment.

The entire upgrading project of Laiyuan Dawan Zinc-Molybdenum Mine will cost an investment of 1.3 billion yuan according to preliminary estimate; it is planned to spend 2 and half year to complete infrastructure construction.After the project is completed, its daily ore treatment capacity will increase from the current 1000 tons to 10000 tons, which means annual treatment of 3.60 million tons of molybdenum ore, and production of 8000 tons of molybdenum concentrate.

According to Tian Zejun, Dushancheng Iron Mining Area contains 500 million tons of iron ore, previously it was excavated by 16 privateowned mining enterprises; due to long time scattered and irrational development, there are many safety hazards, today the entire mining area is troubled with dilapidated condition and deteriorated environment. Hebei Iron & Steel Group has reached cooperation intention with Laiyuan Guanghui Mining Industry Co., Ltd, a leading company with rich resource reserve in this mining area which is a subordinate of Tsinghua Unisplendour, and jointly established joint venture company. After integration, it will build a large modern iron mine with annual production capacity of 1 million tons of iron concentrate.

Furthermore, the resources in Mujicun Copper Mining Area are kept intact, up till now it has received no damage from any enterprise, it contains a large copper deposit in China, with broad development prospects. Intensive development of these precious resources holds key significance for quickly expanding Hebei Iron& Steel Group, cultivating new economic growth points for non-ferrous metal industry in Hebei Province, and improving the overall competition strength of Hebei Iron & Steel Group in the metallurgy industry.