15 Million Tons of Copper to be Increased during Next Five Years

According to the Plan of Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization of Mineral Resources in the 12th Five-Year Plan Period (hereinafter referred to as the Plan) recently issued by the Ministry of Land and Resources, during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, China will increase and efficiently utilize 15,000,000 tons of copper ores on an all-round basis. Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) considers the move will be conducive to mitigation of shortage of copper ore supplies.

The Plan defines the overall objective of mineral resources conservation and comprehensive utilization in the 12th Five-Year Plan period:firstly, spend 3 years to check up on China’s development and utilization of 20-plus key mineral resources including oil, coal, copper and aluminum, etc.; secondly, improve development and saving efficiency of mineral resources on an all-round basis. Compared with 2010, in utilizing the same reserves, 5% more resources will be recovered in 2015; thirdly,significantly increase comprehensive utilization level and scale of mineral resources. Through comprehensive utilization, China will increase and efficiently use 15,000,000 tons of copper and 600 tons of gold, etc.; fourthly, build more than 60 pilot bases for comprehensive utilization of mineral resources, and carry out approximately 600 pilot projects to provide impetus to overall improvement of mineral resources saving and comprehensive utilization; fifthly, set up long-term mechanism for energy saving and comprehensive utilization.

According to exclusive data of Shanghai Metals Market (SMM), between 2005 and 2011,China’s self-sufficiency rate of copper concentrate fluctuated between 34% and 37%, indicating China’s increasing dependency on import of copper concentrate, which restricts development of domestic copper smelting companies, and puts them in a passive position in face of great copper price fluctuations. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period, China will increase output of copper ore by 15,000,000 tons through enhancing resource utilization rate,which is undoubtedly good news for mitigating excessive dependence of domestic copper smelting industry on copper concentrate imports.